Daniel Kahneman, a Princeton psychology professor and Nobel laureate, says we "would be better investors if we just made fewer decisions."

What is behavioral investing?

Daniel Kahneman, a Princeton psychology professor and Nobel laureate, says we "would be better investors if we just made fewer decisions." But we don't. Even professionals, the "people who are specifically trained to bring" rational decision-making skills "to problems, don't do so even when they know they should."

You simply cannot rewire and reprogram an irrational brain and make an investor "less irrational." And yet, as well-intentioned as they are, the financial-literacy idealists keep fighting a losing battle. They're like Don Quixote tilting at windmills.

I was involved in a federally funded program following the Enron-era stock-scandal settlements. While advising a congressional committee on fund reforms, I looked at the many problems with promoting financial literacy. I reviewed the long history of failed attempts, including the Mutual Fund Educational Alliance, which has been around since 1971. Guess what? The fund industry was exploiting those educational initiatives as a clever marketing opportunity to manipulate investors.