Former President Bill Clinton addressed a crowd of thousands of Southern California kids Sunday at the largest-ever gathering for financial literacy education.
Nearly 6,000 people attended the event, according to the organizer, Irvine-based Banc of California. Representatives from Guinness World Records were on hand to certify the record-breaking attendance.
Clinton gave a brief speech in which he recalled his own childhood, saying that people in Hope, Ark., knew how to handle what little money they had.
Referring to more recent decades, he said: "One of the things that all of our schools have not done a very good job at is teaching young people about money."
Before Clinton spoke, organizers used the video screens in the Galen Center on the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles to quiz kids about financial literacy.
The questions included: How many times does the number one appear on a one-dollar bill? (Correct answer: 16.) The elementary-school-age children in attendance also got a lesson in compound interest, appreciating assets versus depreciating ones, and borrowing costs.
Clinton later commented: "The most important thing you can do today is not to remember what I say, but to remember what was said before I got here."
Also speaking at the event were former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who's currently an advisor to Banc of California, and the $4.4 billion-asset bank's chief executive officer, Steven Sugarman.
