U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is pitching a financial literacy campaign to leaders of the world's largest economies, suggesting an investment account program begun under President Donald Trump as a model. This was reported by infohub.kz.
Bessent hosted finance ministers from rich and developing nations in the G20 and announced U.S. sponsorship for a competition called the "Financial Literacy Solutions Sprint." The competition is intended to discover and showcase innovative technology- and data-enabled solutions developed across G20 countries to strengthen financial literacy. Four finalists will be pared to one or two winning teams, who will be recognized during the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in October in Bangkok.
Bessent points to the creation of Trump Accounts, a program that provides $1,000 investment accounts to babies born during Trump's second term, as a model other nations should follow. According to the Treasury, roughly 7 million children are enrolled, and 86% of participants are from families earning less than $200,000 per year.
The secretary often talks about his humble beginnings in rural South Carolina, where he got his first jobs at age 9 as a busboy at a cafeteria and setting up chairs and umbrellas on the beach. His father, a real estate developer, had lost generations of Bessent family wealth by overleveraging his obligations.
One of Bessent's first moves as Treasury secretary was to launch Financial Literacy Month to teach people the basics of building a workable budget, saving for the future, and protecting themselves from scammers and fraudsters.
However, critics argue that the problem is less about people not knowing how to invest and more about them not having enough spare income to do so. According to July polling from the AP-NORC Center, about 7 in 10 U.S. adults say the country's economy is "poor." This underscores Americans' continued unhappiness with the cost of living, which is being compounded by high gas prices due to the war in Iran.
"Americans can't educate themselves out of their current financial crises, and it's hypocritical for the Treasury Secretary to place the blame on ordinary Americans' financial decisions when their struggles are the direct result of decisions that Scott Bessent himself has made," said Julie Morgan, CEO of the Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank.