The compound interest problem
Take $24,000 and $188,000. Go back to 1960. Apply the S&P 500’s historical average return to both figures. Compound for sixty-five years. You land within striking distance of the current gap.
We are economists....
The receipts
Of the first 67,000 mortgages insured by the VA in Mississippi, exactly two went to Black veterans. Not two percent. Two. The GI Bill — the single largest wealth-creation program in American history — was administered through local agencies that excluded Black...
$24,000 and $188,000
That is the median wealth of the Black and white families the Federal Reserve has been tracking since 1989. The ratio has not meaningfully changed. The number is not in dispute....