Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said U.S. households with the lowest net worth at the start of the 2007-2009 recession suffered the biggest financial setback from the downturn in percentage terms.
“While many Americans lost wealth during the Great Recession, younger, less-educated and non-white families lost the greatest percentage of their wealth,” Bullard said in a statement in the St. Louis Fed’s annual report released today. “Household deleveraging, or paying down debt, has played a key role in the recent recession and the slow recovery.”