Some people, many people, most people in fact, when asked to make a decision or judgment, turn off their own investigative and evaluative mental processes when presented with the Word of an expert.

It is certainly much easier to swoon into the arms of an authority figure or an respected specialist or a written document accepted as Truth than to reason through a problem or situation on one's own brain power, logic, compassion and commonsense.

Religion, economics, politics.

Could this be the underlying mechanism, the source of blind adherence to bad "expert" advice about money/investments on an individual level and economic decisions on a macro level?

My husband is very respectful and referential to authority. I am just the opposite: when someone represents himself to me as an expert, I am ready to respond by questioning and probing and determining the answer for myself. Experts are people with titles; much of their so-called expertise is derivative; I'd rather figure it out for myself.

Typical UU.