From: Top1000Funds.com
Introducing a “foreign language shield” into a decision-making process is a proven way of making better decisions, according to Cass Sunstein, the Robert Walmsey University Professor at Harvard Law School.
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“If you’re an adviser, get the cost/benefit figures, the risk/return figures, the algorithms, up and running. It’s a great safeguard,” he said.
The term “foreign language shield” comes from the behavioural finance finding that speaking a foreign language has been shown to turn off the part of the brain that makes quick, intuitive and generally error-prone decisions.
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The demand for rigorous cost/benefit analysis is “in President Obama’s 2011 Executive Order, which says you have to quantify everything and make sure the benefits justify the cost”.
“I found this was a fantastic safeguard – sometimes resisted, and not always in the regulatory areas I imagine that you work with, honoured – but extremely helpful,” he said.
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Sunstein said OIRA had veto power, subject to the President’s override.
“So if it says no…that’s the end of it, really, unless the President comes in,” Sunstein said.
“And he’s a pretty busy guy.”
