There seems to be a real disconnect on this board (also exhibited in this thread) in terms of understanding the difference between raw intelligence, job mastery, and 'behavioral intelligence' (temperamental-type qualities).
Alicia Munnell is obviously pretty intelligent in terms of IQ...she has two advanced degrees in addition to her Bachelor's, and she's been able to master statistical concepts and do research based on those concepts, and publish said research. She also exhibits job mastery, in that she serves in a position of responsibility, and seems to meet her obligations pretty well or it's unlikely she would have been promoted so high.
BUT, what an amazing number of people on this board seem to misunderstand, in thread after thread after thread, is that those traits, in MANY (possibly most) people don't necessarily correlate with optimal financial behavior, which has a lot more to do with temperamental inclination and behavioral intelligence.
Let's just take the top half of the intelligence bell curve: that is a shit ton of relatively to very smart people in this world, many of them who excel at challenging, high-skill jobs, that STILL MAKE DUMBASS DECISIONS on a regular basis. And it ISN'T because they are too stupid to know better. People cheat on spouses and fuck up marriages; they drink too much, smoke too much, or sit on their asses too much for optimal health; they sell at the bottom of the market crash; they constantly respond emotionally to situations that require rational, mathematical thinking; they feel overwhelmed and busy and put off crucial decisions too long; they have external and internal pressures from family, upbringing, social context, etc. that skew their decisions (e.g., I'll save for kids college fund, even though I have no retirement fund), and on and on and on.
I don't know whether it is a preponderance of personality types that have congregated at this board or what, but sooooo many MMM forum participants seem to believe that people 'should' behave optimally assuming they are smart and have good information. And yet, society shows us OVER AND OVER that this is a fallacy. They do not, and they never will, because most people aren't wired that way.
Alicia Munnell is perfectly intelligent, as are most federal workers (most work in high-skill disciplines that require advanced degrees and complex skill-set mastery). Does that mean most of them are making optimal decisions in other areas of their lives? Not necessarily. Should we be shocked by this? NO.