In a plug for this week's Color of Wealth Policy Summit, the Washington Post features an op-ed by Meizhu Lui of the Insight Center for Community Economic Development in Oakland, CA on the shockingly-expansive racial wealth gap in the U.S. This subject is Asset Building 101: A broad income gap means many families cannot get by, while others are plenty comfortable. The even-broader wealth gap means that many families cannot get ahead, while others are reaping the benefits of tax breaks and other policies that can only be accessed by those who do not want.

Consider data from the most recent Survey of Consumer Finances on average family income (before taxes):

White non-Hispanic families: $51,800.
Non-white or Hispanic families: $36,800.

Pretty Troubling.

Now consider the following: "According to the Fed, for every dollar of wealth held by the typical white family, the African American family has only one dime."

Pretty Terrifying.

This month, the Federal Reserve published its triennial Survey of Consumer Finances, an invaluable resource in gauging America's saving habits and shifts in net worth (especially for low-income populations). Some of the highlights:

In a pseudo-memo to President-elect Obama today, Michael Gerson (former speechwriter/policy advisor to President Bush and current Washington Post columnist) has this interesting hypothetical:

"Political indifference to durable poverty in our midst has long been a scandal; from Obama it would be a tragedy. America does need to ‘spread the wealth' -- but not in the simply redistributionist sense. The racial divide in our country is widest when it comes to assets. The median net worth of white and Asian Americans in 2004 was $142,700. The median net worth of African Americans was $20,400. There are many reasons for this massive disparity, including what Lincoln called centuries of ‘unrequited toil.' Reparations are a politically self-destructive dead end. But what if President Obama, for example, proposed to set up tax-free savings accounts for every poor child at birth and seeded those accounts with a few thousand dollars? Addressing the wealth gap through the miracle of compound interest would be a lasting contribution to the justice of our country."

Here in the Asset Building Program, we couldn't agree more.