Learning How to Speak the ‘Language of Money’ Is Critical, Says Personal Finance Expert Karen Gross
Contact: Edith Sachs, Office of Public Affairs, 212.431.2187, esachs@nyls.edu
NEW YORK, May 10, 2006 – The new film Friends with Money depicts four female friends wrestling openly with a subject that makes most people extremely uncomfortable: money—who has it, who doesn’t, and the impact those differences have on friendships. The taboo on frank conversation about money is strong. But New York Law School Professor Karen Gross, a legal expert in personal finance and founder of the Coalition for Consumer Bankruptcy Debtor Education, believes that it is essential that people learn to speak the “language of money” and become comfortable with its vocabulary, syntax, and meaning.
Gross is available for comment on why we need to learn to speak money’s language and what the consequences are of not doing so.
“When you go to visit a foreign country, you’re at a serious disadvantage if you have no knowledge of the language spoken there,” says Gross. “You may find ways to get by, but you’ll still have great difficulty both being understood and understanding others. If you don’t understand a nation’s language, you will never quite capture its culture. It’s the same with money, which has its own language.
“Money affects self-perception, family relationships, friendships; it also impacts organizations and policy-making,” Gross continues. “Those who can speak the language of money have an easier time navigating and advancing in our society. They can much more easily advocate for themselves and their personal and professional interests, and they can protect themselves and their families much more effectively in the credit marketplace and in more private moments.”
About Karen Gross
Gross has been a professor at New York Law School for more than 20 years, teaching courses in bankruptcy, contracts, and financial advocacy, among others. She is also director of New York Law School’s Economic Literacy Consortium and president of the Coalition for Consumer Bankruptcy Debtor Education, an award-winning pro bono organization that assists consumer debtors who file for bankruptcy in understanding and improving their ability to manage their financial affairs. She speaks frequently to organizations, educational institutions, and media in the United States and abroad on consumer finance, economic literacy, and bankruptcy-related issues. She is the author of the book Failure and Forgiveness: Rebalancing the Bankruptcy System (Yale University Press, 1997), which won the Association of American Publishers’ 1997 Business Management Award.
Gross can be reached at 212.431.2154 (office) or via e-mail to kgross@nyls.edu.
For additional assistance, please contact Edith Sachs in the Office of Public Affairs at New York Law School at 212.431.2187 (office), 917.376.6573 (cell), or via e-mail to esachs@nyls.edu.
About New York Law School
Founded in 1891, New York Law School is an independent law school located in lower Manhattan near the city’s centers of law, government, and finance. New York Law School’s renowned faculty of prolific scholars has built the school’s strength in such areas as constitutional law, civil and human rights, labor and employment law, media and information law, urban legal studies, international and comparative law, and a number of interdisciplinary fields. The school is noted for its six academic centers: the Justice Action Center, Center for New York City Law, Center for Professional Values and Practice, Center on Business Law & Policy, Institute for Information Law and Policy, and the Center for International Law. New York Law School has more than 13,000 graduates and enrolls some 1500 students in its full- and part-time J.D. programs and its Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation program.
