When it takes a long time to create a problem, it often takes even longer to fix it. In Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality, Melvin L. Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro illustrated how various American tax, property and financial policies and practices precluded generations of African Americans from building wealth and created intergenerational poverty, the effects of which continue to reverberate today. The gains that some African Americans and other people of color made in wealth creation through home ownership, small business development and educational attainment during the late 1990s and early 2000s were all but wiped out by ongoing the financial and foreclosure crisis. If left unaddressed, the racial wealth gap will continue to grow.

In response to pressure from a customer backed by consumer and disability rights advocates, Chase Bank announced on May 13 that it would not impose its $12 monthly fee on basic checking account customers with direct deposits of at least $500 per month in aggregate from Social Security payments. This change could save customers with disabilities millions of dollars a year.

It’s hard to feel lonely in Roxie King’s house. The walls are packed with row upon row of pictures of Roxie’s parents, two children, twenty grandchildren, and other loved ones celebrating various stages in life. On a recent visit, Roxie proudly showed Woodstock friend Bobbi Ball of Partners In Community Building, Inc. and me around her clean and cozy ranch-style home of 37 years near Midway Airport. Given her good cheer, it was hard to believe that, just last year, she was at risk of losing this home.

Bankruptcy filers in African-American neighborhoods choose potentially risky Chapter 13 more often than filers in white communities

Women in Cook County’s African-American neighborhoods file for bankruptcy at a disproportionately high rate, a new report from Woodstock Institute found. The report also found that bankruptcy filers in African-American communities are far more likely to choose Chapter 13 bankruptcy over Chapter 7, a trend that may indicate limited economic benefits of the bankruptcy process to filers in these communities.

With all the media buzz about the “mancession,” one might be forgiven for thinking that women emerged from the recession unscathed. It’s true that men are overrepresented in industries that were hit hardest by the recession, like construction and manufacturing, but that isn’t the whole story when it comes to measuring economic security. Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) hosted a conference last week for its network of national partners, including Woodstock Institute, to explore persistent challenges to women’s economic security, from childhood to retirement.