2020 Ideas Festival: Baby Bonds

Naomi Zewde, postdoctoral research scientist at the Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy, discusses her study of 2020 presidential contender and NJ Senator Corey Booker's "baby bonds" proposal. The study finds that the policy would considerably narrow the racial wealth inequalities that exist today.

"If you think about how wealth works, it's accumulated over generations," @nzewde says. She adds that it's an accumulation that African American families haven't haven't historically had access to.-The Brian Lehrer Show (@brianlehrer)

Here's our guest's study, btw: "Median wealth among young [whites]is approximately 16 times that of the young African Americans. The baby bond program raises median wealth for both groups and reduces the disparity to a factor of 1.4" (PDF)-The Brian Lehrer Show (@brianlehrer)