American minorities need to “strengthen their financial literacy,” Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told students and faculty at Atlanta’s historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta today.
On a day when President Obama delivered an Economic Crisis 101 lecture to students and faculty at Georgetown University, Bernanke was doing the same thing in Atlanta.
During an expansive Q-and-A session with Morehouse students after his speech, Bernanke was asked about the household wealth gap between whites and blacks in America.
“It’s absolutely right the difference between minority and white wealth is very significant, and part of that is related to income levels where whites have a higher average income,” Bernanke said. “But even if you control for income level, you find minorities have gathered less wealth.”
Part of the cause, Bernanke said, is a lack of “financial education.”
“There needs to be a broader understanding in minority communities, which haven’t had that much exposure, about saving and building a credit record and being part of the mainstream economy,” Bernanke said.
