The Black-White Wealth Gap Has Widened Under Obama
Inequality: President
Obama's subpar economic recovery has been bad for almost everyone, but
it's been especially brutal to blacks and Hispanics, who've seen their
wealth decline since he took office.
Obama twice ran for the White House promising to reduce the gap between rich and poor. Instead, it expanded across the board.
And a new paper from the Pew Research Center shows that it's widened most when you compare the net worth of whites to that of blacks and Hispanics.
Using data from Federal Reserve's once-every-three years Survey of Consumer Finances, Pew found that the median net worth of blacks dropped 34% during the Obama recovery, going from $16,600 in 2010 to $11,000 in 2013.
That's a steeper decline than occurred from 2007 to 2010, when blacks' net worth fell 13.5%.
In other words, black families suffered a bigger drop in net worth during Obama's recovery than they did during the Bush recession.
As a result, their inflation-adjusted net wealth in 2013 was no better than it was 30 years before.
Likewise, Hispanics saw their wealth erode under Obama, dropping 14.3% from 2010 to 2013. Their real median net worth is roughly back where it was in 1992, the researchers found.
In contrast, white wealth climbed — albeit only slightly at 2.4% — during Obama's recovery.
But no group's net worth is above the peaks reached in 2007.
What caused these diverging trends? The Pew researchers point to the same culprit we've identified many times for the growing overall income gap — a decline in family incomes under Obama.
Median income of minority households, which includes blacks, Hispanics and other minority groups, dropped 9% from 2010 to 2013. For whites, the drop was just 1%.
At the same time, the stock market has gone gangbusters, and since whites are likelier to own stocks, they benefited most. Plus, homeownership dropped far more sharply among minorities than it did for whites.
The bottom line is that white wealth is 13 times greater than that of blacks, and 10 times greater than that of Hispanics.
In terms of breaking a campaign promise, it doesn't get much worse than this.
Obama twice ran for the White House promising to reduce the gap between rich and poor. Instead, it expanded across the board.
And a new paper from the Pew Research Center shows that it's widened most when you compare the net worth of whites to that of blacks and Hispanics.
Using data from Federal Reserve's once-every-three years Survey of Consumer Finances, Pew found that the median net worth of blacks dropped 34% during the Obama recovery, going from $16,600 in 2010 to $11,000 in 2013.
That's a steeper decline than occurred from 2007 to 2010, when blacks' net worth fell 13.5%.
In other words, black families suffered a bigger drop in net worth during Obama's recovery than they did during the Bush recession.
As a result, their inflation-adjusted net wealth in 2013 was no better than it was 30 years before.
Likewise, Hispanics saw their wealth erode under Obama, dropping 14.3% from 2010 to 2013. Their real median net worth is roughly back where it was in 1992, the researchers found.
In contrast, white wealth climbed — albeit only slightly at 2.4% — during Obama's recovery.
But no group's net worth is above the peaks reached in 2007.
What caused these diverging trends? The Pew researchers point to the same culprit we've identified many times for the growing overall income gap — a decline in family incomes under Obama.
Median income of minority households, which includes blacks, Hispanics and other minority groups, dropped 9% from 2010 to 2013. For whites, the drop was just 1%.
At the same time, the stock market has gone gangbusters, and since whites are likelier to own stocks, they benefited most. Plus, homeownership dropped far more sharply among minorities than it did for whites.
The bottom line is that white wealth is 13 times greater than that of blacks, and 10 times greater than that of Hispanics.
In terms of breaking a campaign promise, it doesn't get much worse than this.
Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/121214-730424-pew-study-finds-growing-black-white-wealth-gap-under-obama.htm#ixzz3LnO8RBTh
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