Is there a market for somebody selling a credit card that helps people pay down their balances? I think the question is yes. But it would have to be sold by a bank that's really willing to invest in being a trusted partner with its consumers, because they will make less money on each consumer.

Most economists, including me, agree that longevity insurance would make sense for a lot of people.

Everyone's lost a lot of money on their 401k plans. I've heard some people calling them 201k plans. So it's even more important to get people to be saving more for retirement. Behavioral economics has helped us learn a lot about how to do that.

Retirement savings is probably behavioral economists' greatest success story. It is a prototypical behavioral-economics problem because saving for retirement is cognitively hard - figuring out how much to save - and requires self-control.

Most people start claiming benefits within a year of when they become eligible, although benefits increase substantially if they wait.

I think we also have learned the lesson that we have to have better incentive structures.

People exaggerate their own skills. they are optimistic about their prospects and overconfident about their guesses, including which managers to pick.