I will start this lecture with some general thoughts on the determinants of long-term asset prices such as stock prices or home prices: what, ultimately, drives these prices to change as they do from time to time and how can we interpret these changes? I will consider the discourse in the profession about the role of rationality in the formation of these prices and the growing trend towards behavioral finance and, more broadly, behavioral economics, the growing acceptance of the importance of

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... ternative psychological, sociological, and epidemiological factors as affecting prices. I will focus on the statistical methods that allow us to learn about the sources of price volatility in the stock market and the housing market, and evidence that has led to the behavioral finance revolution in financial thought in recent decades. The broader purpose here is to appreciate the promise of financial technology. There is a great deal of popular skepticism about financial institutions afoot these days, after the financial and economic crisis that has dragged on ever since the severest days in 2008. I want to consider the possibilities for the future of finance in general terms, rather than focusing on current stopgap measures to deal opportunistically with symptoms of our current economic crisis. The talk about the rationality of markets is a precursor to this talk of financial technology, for it underpins our notions of what is possible with technology. I will conclude that the market have already been "human-factors-engineered" to function remarkably well, and that as our understanding of the kind of psychology that leads to bubbles and related problems is improved, we can further innovate to improve the functioning of these markets.