communities of color, in particular. we must ensure that they understand how to manage their financial lives in a way that the purveyors can secure retirement as much as anyone else. we must clearly also broaden access. we believe everyone should have an opportunity to save for retirement at their workplace. these have a profound impact for our economic progress as a nation and for the long-term well-being of all americans. we clearly have a long way to go we firmly believe we can overcome the challenges we face. we must actually make it a national priority, and toward that end, we have been heartened to see the administration take a number of actions to enhance retirement security. :

which is helping people without access to workplace retirement plans start to safe. the very passionate about the importance saving at a young age and taking advantage of the miracle of compound interest. for all of those very important initiative and we applaud the government for doing that and recognize both the government, business and the not-for-profit sector have a role to play. a couple of things tia has done in this regard. we are coordinator with the council of graduate schools on an initiative that aims to boost financial literacy among college students.

i get of all colors and ethnicities. we launched a consortia to strengthen historically black colleges and universities. talking to many of those leaders, starting a process. we have created hispanic advisory council to guide us in my own company and serving spanish-speaking participants. we offer counseling and education in spanish language as well. in spite of the challenges i would say let me close by saying we are optimistic that we can tackle the challenges i've outlined today. if we work together we can make retirement act time not to fear but of financial security as it should be for communities of color as we can for all americans. let me close by thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak and address this a lustrous audience, i do hope you enjoy the rest of the forum. thank you very much. [applause]

>> thank you again. and it's my great pleasure to introduce our first panelist absolutely bring them up to the stage. our panel will be moderated by deputy secretary sarah bloom raskin. deputy secretary has been a real leader in our efforts here, the average of the federal reserve board, the state of maryland in the senate, her career and so we are pleased to have her engaged on this topic. deputy secretary raskin will be joined by professor raj chetty of stanford, professor of economics. curley dossman, chairman of the board, 100 black men of america, and john rogers, chairman and ceo and chief investment officer of ariel investments. please join me in welcoming them to the stage. [applause] >> well, good morning and thank

you, amias, for introducing this panel. and thank you all really for today joining us for this freedman's bank forum for what promises to be really and enlightening discussion by this panel, and we'll be talking about building jobs and opportunity for communities of color. now, we know that the challenge of building jobs and opportunity for communities of color is related to the challenge of access, try financial system that is designed to foster inclusion. hands, the name of today's forum, the freedman's bank forum. think about it. more than 150 years ago the friedmans savings and trust company was founded at the direction of president lincoln right next door to where we're all gathered today. and this company was really

bored out of the recognition of the need for financial, for financial infrastructure that was inclusive of our newly emancipated people. it served as a place where the poorest and most disadvantaged individuals in our nation could access often for the first time basic financial services. so it was a door industry as a door into the formal economy and a pathway for people who have none. and it allowed people to start getting credit, to start, to start businesses, and to begin opportunities to save. it was an early institutional response to the challenge of creating opportunity for the newly emancipated americans. now, more than a century and a half later, i think it's fair to

say our nation has made enormous progress. but the critical importance of financial inclusion to building jobs and opportunity for communities of color hasn't changed. how we foster such financial inclusion so that it unlocks opportunities to participate in economic gains is what we're going to be discussing on this panel. now, the economy has experienced large improvements come if you look at the macroeconomic indicators, right? nearly nine years ago the worst financial crisis since the great depression plunged our economy into a recession. we know that when president obama first took office, the economy was losing more than 700,000 jobs every month. since then the administration has made tremendous progress rebuilding our economy. it look at the macro indicators, the unemployment rate stands at

4.9%. u.s. businesses have added 15.1 million jobs since early 2010, and recent census data is showing income growth between 2014-2015 as being the fastest on record. this is good news, and what is encouraging is that households at the bottom of the income distribution are finally seeing some of the largest games. specifically, the bottom 10% of households saw their income increased nearly 8% over the past year. despite these gains, we know that there's a danger in focusing only on these macro indicators. they can often obscure what our underlying data points and trends that we know are important to understand, important to address for sustained economic growth.

so when you pull the curtain back over the aggregate macro data, we see really what is at stake. in 2013, the median net worth of white households, by some surveys, with $144,200. 13 times higher than the median net worth for black households, which was only 11,200. we dig into the data. we see other things. we find out for communities of color, many games on the economic level are not being felt. consider this. 34% of all americans report they could probably or certainly not come up with $2000 in the next month for an unexpected expense. 34%. for all immigrants. among african-americans, if you look just at african-americans,

this rate is even higher, 48%. also 26 million consumers, which represent 15% of african-americans, our credit invisible, meaning they have no record at all at the major credit bureaus. so they're unlikely, this income to build access credit on good terms and are more likely to have to turn to high cost, while stripping lenders in an emergency, or for day-to-day expenses like fixing a car to get to work. we know financial emergencies are up, often unpredictable and unavoidable, but when americans don't have the income or the financial access, they have to be forced into higher cost products and making these impossible decisions like choosing between food and paying for rent. beyond dealing with immediate expenses, when consumers don't have the income or the financial access they need, they are put

at a significant disadvantage if you want to start a business. if they want to buy a home. if you want to do anything to begin creating a cushion for a long-term financial security. in other words, that very lubricants of opportunity begin to evaporate. these barriers to an inclusive financial system are consequential for individuals. and ultimately consequential for being able to be on a path to economic growth that is sustained and not merely sporadic. so today we have joined with us three esteemed panelists who are going to help us address some of these questions. they are going to help us explore what factors within our economic and our financial system can help support

opportunity and a more inclusive economic growth. these panels are going to help us understand these questions and think about what else we can be doing to build jobs and opportunities for communities of color. so first we are joined by raj chetty who is a professor of economics at stanford, whose research combines empirical evidence and economic theory to help design more effective policies. now, ma we know that is not enough for a policy to sound good when we discussed it at meetings or in forums like this your we need to be designing and implementing evidence-based, database solutions. and raj rings their perspective it's going to help us identify some of these policy solutions. we're also going to hear from curley dossman, the chairman of the 100 black men of america, to talk about his role in transforming the lives of youth and improving communities through their mentor ships.

curly has real boots on the ground experience, and his expertise is relevant as a focus on houses that affect people at the individual level in communities of color. if we design more, and more accessible financial infrastructure, we turn to curley to help us answer will people really use it, how we think they will? and in addition we will hear about his role as the president of the georgia pacific foundation, and better understand how philanthropic investment can help build meaningful opportunities in communities. finally, john rogers will share his perspective as the chairman, ceo and chief investment officer of ariel investments. and his experience working in the southside of chicago. john help us better understand the role of the private sector as well as the critical role that education plays in

broad-based prosperity. john has been a great advisor to us at treasury, particularly in his role on the president advisory council on a natural capability, and we'r we are especially pleased to have you back, john. turning to our questions, i'm going to start with raj, and we're going to talk about, raj, some of the factors that foster economic mobility. economists models, they often dwell on labor, on capital, on natural resource endowment. but studies also show that there are institutional factors at stake, things like accessible and affordable education, accessible and affordable and safe financial services. these are all critical, as well as factors such as a fair legal system or appropriate

regulations, sufficient government investment, vibrant private sector. i want to start by asking you, raj, what factors you look at, what do you see that helps explain whether the engines for economic mobility are producing opportunity for all cracks and what can we be doing to increase the mechanisms for social mobility, particularly for communities of color? >> absolutely. first let me just say it's a pleasure to be part of his very important event. let me start in answering your question by describing data that we use to analyze this topic, that actually comes from the treasury, so attract the likes of about 10 million kids looking at what they grew up and now that affects the economic opportunities. and women look at that basic data set for we find is that there is tremendous variation in economic opportunity across communities in the united states. so there are some parts of

america that can be fairly described as lance of opportunity, you know, consistent with the traditional american ideals of kids be able to move up in the income distribution if they work hard no matter the background but there are unfortunately many other communities in america that are better described as places of persistent poverty, or if you grew up in a low income, you really don't have good chances of climbing the income letter. to give some examples, parts of the west coast, places like the bay area or salt lake city offers americans with the dissidents backgrounds tremendous opportunities for succeeding relative to cities like atlanta, georgia, or milwaukee, wisconsin, or indianapolis. they are just three or four fold differences in the chances of climbing from the bottom of the income ladder to the top of the income ladder of cosby's places. to come to your question, what are the systematic differences between places like the bay area or salt lake city and places

like atlanta or charlotte when we sing much less opportunities? we look at a variety of factors and i'll describe some of the most, the strongest patterns that we find. first we find the cities are more segregated by race or by income in terms of residential segregation, those types of cities have much lower rates of economic opportunity then more integrated communities. so if you take atlanta, a lead is an incredibly segregated city by race. blacks and whites live in completely different parts of the cities. and said that look like that in terms of residential structures tend to have much lower economic opportunity. second, we find places with more social capital, places where someone else is likely to help you out even if you're not doing well, salt lake city with the mormon church is thought to be a classic example of a city with a lot of social capital. those types of areas, again,

nontraditional labor capital kind of factor but other types of factors that really seemed to affect economic outcomes. i'll mention a third, the quality of public schools in an area. you might expect places with better public schools seem to dramatically better outcomes. intensive gets moved up the income distribution. let me relate this to our topic today, thinking about opportunities for communities of color. what we find is that areas with large african-american populations tend to offer much less economic opportunity, unfortunately. you can see that with examples i've given, places like atlanta or charlotte with large african-american populations. the cities team to score worse on all of the factors that i've been describing. they didn't have much more segregation, weaker public schools, and this amplifies racial gaps in america. we estimate something like a quarter of the gap in incomes between blacks and whites are

the gaps in wealth we've all been talking about are do something to the differences in the communities where blacks grew up in more whites grew up. to put that differently, if we were able to give african-american kids the same opportunities in terms of what we simply select salt lake city or san francisco, or if we were to move a child from a community that looks more segregated to the committee that is more integrated, we would wipe out we think roughly a quarter of the black-white income gap just about child intervention. i think we need to be thinking about the roots of these problems as going back to childhood, and not just thinking that differences in the labor market. think about factors like segregation, education, social capital and so forth. >> let's drill down on the education piece in particular, raj. john, i'd like to hear from you. because i think one thing that we know as a precondition for

growth is having a perspective that is a long-term focus. certainly when we focus on education we think of something that is going to be an investment where there are some costs, significant costs in terms of investing in the education of a child and moving them through the educational system. but i know that you've got an important perspective on the role that educational institutions can play in cultivating a long-term perspective. i guess what i'd like to know, what i think the audience would be interested in hearing from you about is what institutions you think are important to having engaged at the committee level to foster financial cushion, and how is the private sector in particular and kate at the community level to foster a long-term perspective that things about the kind of factors

that raj points us to? >> maybe i'll try to blend two things to answer that question. one of the things we've talked about when i was chairing the presence counci council of vanea capability for young americans was importance of having financial institutions and local businesses partner with urban partner schools and get that professional expertise involved in our public schools. that's what we've done at the area looking at the academy that's the almost 20 years old. we start with arne duncan where we work with young people at ariel school to come down to offices and work with our analysts, learn how to take stock using real money. and getting them exposed to the financial services career path. so it's just as important government about how to save, learning about how to invest. the same time they are being role models and building mentorship models so they think about financial services careers for the first time and going to

talk to the parents and their aunt in august, grandparents about how to save and importance of again just kind of economic and viable spirit that maybe they had not thought of before they went to the academy. i think it's important i think the scratch is also the more likely to become entrepreneurs, more likely to start businesses that will scale of us because that is long-term financial curriculum they have been exposed to for the long-term. i think education is a part of the solution and we need to get our financial institutions partner with public schools that can make a difference. the second example on the south side is not far from the ariel community academy is chicago. one of the things i talked what is income institution in chicago right and privilege to be a trustee for the past 17 years, they've been working to work with local a minority-owned businesses in a very meaningful way, and professional services for the first time. over the last eight or nine years they've gone from zero to nothing relationship with 16

professional services countries. you can talk to local caterers, local photographers, local small businesses to say they're able to survive the financial crisis because the university of chicago is a customer. talk to the head of the african-american registration and they say they may payroll one month because the university of chicago hospitals advertise with them. so i say we need our anchor institutions work with local minority businesses because of those businesses will higher local people of color and people of a chance again to pick her path to growth for opportunity and i think the university of chicago that extraordinarily well on the south side of chicago. >> curley, you spent a lot of time working with young people and working on the ground with communities of color. from your experience what he's seeing that you would say makes the biggest impact on helping create economic opportunity for

people in these communities? >> before i answer that specific question, let me also raised the topic i think that plays and undergirds everything we're talking about. i think that's what issues this country subject to have an honest conversation around race, anan issue that goes around that come and impact it's been. we talked about the progress we've made but we also have not really talked about in an honest fashion the way well as just what some of these communities, and what tha that is credited tt a cities like atlanta and others, it's not just segregation were talking about. it's the positive that goes along with it. so the requirement and the kinds of investments that are necessary to really impact in those poverty neighborhoods really requires a great deal of other resources. i think we have to really have those conversations, to really understand that it's more than just a segregation can do. it's how we deal with the issue

of poverty. in the cities and in those locations there's probably at least 80-90% of the kids who attend those schools are free and reduced lunch the assessment impact on their ability to learn, to be equipped to learn and to be motivated to learn and go to school. there are other issues and hurdles i had to overcome. so on a broad area what communities can do, we have seen that really brings a lot of the major segments have to come together and focus on key issues and do that over a sustained period of time and make sure that equity is an adequate part of the discussion. if you bring public-private partnerships, we have seen to be very effective and tobacco in the area when you look at these sectors, whether it's the corporate sector, the private philanthropic sector, the government sector, and then you bring a faith-based institution as well, and they sustain themselves in a voluntary the

time on a specific issue we can make an impact. i think that's where this intersection between these of various sectors really can create opportunity for people in those communities and working, and we've seen that happen. we've got something in atlanta right now that's tied to the new founders didn't call the westside future fund which is bringing together a lot of those sections together to try to make a transformational impact on 1830 that's just south of that stadium. so we can invest over a billion dollars in building a new stadium, we can surely do a lot more to reinvent the committee that is right adjacent to that, at that impacts it. we do have this publi public pre partnership. i know my ambassador will speak more to that because this firsthand experience in terms of what i might have been able to do your bringing these sectors together i think we have a real opportunity. >> let me drill down all of it more on some of the, curley.

one of the points you make is that we actually have to drill down, that we so when people are young, and that we figure out how to engage them at an early stage to bring them more into the workforce and into an adult economy. we know and we have seen this, and john has highlighted a lot of this work on the president advisory council. how we foster financial inclusion from a young age. that is something that we believe is the challenge that still has a lot of work to be focus on. in the consequences can when you think about the consequences are huge because young people are making decisions about education, about higher education. they are even making decisions at an early age about how they're going to plan for their retirement.

any parent in the room i think struggles with this idea of how to actually engage children at a young boy, and what that right point of time is, and how best to do it in a way that we start to foster real habits of financial inclusion. i think you're going to insights for us on this. >> i'll give you two examples. john mentioned one what they're doing with ariel. we have a program with entrepreneurs. it's an initiative that we target ninth and 10th graders in the high school computer. it's a full-year basis elected of course we find in addition to the public school system. taken from the curriculum maps is working. what this program does is allow, each student is working on an economic way of thinking and also learning the understanding of a natural litters a in the

context, but also how to become an entrepreneur and potentially to want to become an out of print or one of the element of doing that. we teach them those fundamentals like when they choose to go into business for themselves whether they go to work for someone, they go with the least a mindset and thinking like that. if they can take a job opposition thinking like an older, as opposed to describe it as an employee. one of the things we tried to do is what albert of this program is, we have what we call market day. so midway through the curriculum we will see the kids -- $25 each. they to do all those resources. they go out in the marketplace, determine what products or services they want to offer. the school allows them to sell that during the school day once a day. and in the pool the funds and they got to determine now what are they going to do to make a profit without lex what did you learn from the process if they

don't make a process in working with him we see kids be very out of in working when they see one of their competitors get more business than they are. how did in the midmarket on time adjustment to get through the process. at the end of that process they have to pay back the seed money and then they get to keep whatever the profits are. we found the student really resonate do that. it's also target not necessarily -- but to the marginal seascapes because oftentimes we see those listed are more likely to drop out. but also take those entrepreneurial skill sets they have and apply them in an improper way. would like to see them use that in violent skill set to apply in a much more productive way, enticing them through this process they will remain in school and help to drive the graduatiograduatio n rate which is another issue which face in terms of high dropout rates. that's one example we have. on the 100, we have, about our

mentoring program with one of our partners we have what we call a dollars and cents coverage would have 100 chapters around the country, and the students compete in an investment. we give them a portfolio. they have to do an analysis of the portfolio. the act as the investors and they have to tell this person what the recommendations they want. we give them a problem, and it may be that they now have to determine how this person is going to buy this car, pay for the education, et cetera. and had to bring investments do this. these competitions take place around the country, and then they culminate at our national conference with the top teams competing. they can get money for scholarship, or money to invest in their own business. so that's something we've been doing and that's been very helpful with in terms of making sure they start to get the early

part of that financial literacy. so that's part of our economic development bill or that we use, and we think that it would work. a big part of this is providing closure for kids because a lot of these kids have not had the opportunity to understand things beyond what they're saying. so when we give them that exposure, ma we are releasing how well they resonate and respond to that. a lot of what we target teachers with this in the neighborhood, and part of our mentoring program says what they see is what they will be. so we try to provide that level of role model in front of them and provide them with opportunities. >> that's interesting. so there's a big role for mentorship a the programs themselves sound promising. i think i'm going to ask john this question. is this scalable? is what curley is talking about in terms of the mentorship, the heavy one on one focus as well

as the experimentation that's going on with different attributes of these programs, is this something that we could see as a broader-based solution to some of our challenges? >> i think mentorship is an important part of that, and i think we have to be getting all of those, role models for younger folks. that's an important part in what we believe in strong. but as you also we try to do that area we stop at the top level because we think tone starts at the top and and leadership matter. we started 15 years ago with russell but as our partner in a deloitte, the black corporate directors coverage. we bring and also let you directors, ambassador young comes every year and there's a role model for all of us. the idea is to remind people of color that when you get in corporate boardroom, you have a response but to fight for civil rights in conclusion once you are there.

and to make sure that your organization is spending full top of dollars on the types of issues we talked about today in supporting those institutions that need to support, not just the symphony or the opera or things that made have all the glitz to them but you really supported us agencies that matter. second thing we talk of it is also to make sure that those countries you're on the board of our spending money on minority-owned business and giving them the opportunities. people need access to capital, they need access to customers. we give examples come if you support an institution like black enterprise, they are not only having lots and lots of jobs that they are also highlighting successes of minority businesspeople in the magazine. and by the way, they point out that silicon valley could have very many african-americans on the boards and all of a sudden several years later, there are people of color on apple's board and hewlett-packard were. we got some of those guys come

to conference to speak. i think it's a board to educate our leaders, to fight for these issues, and force these corporations to do the root right thing and live up to the commitments they made to have inclusion everywhere and have people having an opportunity to succeed in every aspect of american life. >> if i could just add on that. we are also part of the mentorship of some of the research and studies they've done has shown actually there's probably about 9 million youth today who feel they don't have someone that they can go to, which is why this mentorship is onboard as part of that effort because research has shown that with a mentoring program whether it's 11 or peer-to-peer mentoring a group mentoring, advocates of our participating in those programs lorin maurer, they earn more, they are less likely to get involved with negative activity and more likely to graduate. and there's been some real data

around the aspect that i think would help to continue to push this issue for the i think if i'm ever something or if i look at, about 55% more likely to ask a graduate students not involved with a mentoring program. 130% more likely to lead an effort, and anyone% more likely to actually participate in sports are some other extracurricular activities. something like 78% more likely to get involved in volunteer work and getting back. so those relationships really make a big difference and have an impact on students. there's a demanding need and students are crying out for help. when you talk to the skids they will tell you they're looking for someone who can help. can teach the boys that didn't receive because they may not have that leadership role. the mentorship serves almost as a circuit erred in that relationship it i'll give one example.

one young lady when we adopted the first class, in ninth grade, we asked the question, to the class, what do you want to be when you grew up? and the highest aspiration that was expressed was to be an executive secretary. that's as far as anyone that class can see. wind is a student after going to our mentoring program and graduate from school and working, she went on not only to graduate at that class went on to graduate at a rate higher than the district at a rate hike in the southeast and at a rate higher than the nation in terms of percentage of students who finished. but she went on not only to finish high school, but got onto syracuse university, got to study abroad and today she's a city councilwoman in connecticut leading programs working to but it was that exposure that helped are working and give us an example of wher what we can do. those other things we can see really happened and tedious one

example of what we've seen over the years with involvement of an adult. we tell the person i believe in you and i care about which are doing. that motivates them, drives them. >> i wonder, raj, whether this emphasis on mentorship, does this fit within any of the data points that you looked at speak was very interesting to bring this conversation because i think it's absolutely borne out in the data. so traditionally people think about improving education in the united states, there's a lot of focus on the dollars that we can throughout the problem. i think that's probably not the right way to look at it as the conversation illustrates. it's how you spend the money that's extremely important to so the u.s. spends more per student in terms of dollars and many other countries like sweden and finland that could have much better educational outcomes. the issues are more related to things like mentorship or teachers or the specific way in

which schools are set up that have really important consequences. for example, i think in the u.s. one of the struggles we have in public schools is to keep teachers the most effective teachers in the classrooms, because oftentimes those highlyy successful teachers in a very attractive careers and get paid much more and have more stability than other profession. so working hard to keep teachers who can serve as those critical mentors, one possible set of miniatures is extremely important. we find more generally that exactly as we were hearing from curley, that exact set of people that you are exposed to in childhood has a dramatic influence on your career path. i'll take one example. we've done a study of more adventures in america come from, looking at people who have patents. we see that if you happen to have grown up in an area with a lot of mentors, grown up around

people who are in innovation, like a university, you're much more likely to go into innovation yourself. the way you can see that mentorship seems like a keep out what is the exact field you go into it very closely influenced i were you grew up. so princeton, if we take two kids who are currently in boston and one grew up in silicon valley, we all know has a lot of computer science innovation, and let's say a dedicated group in minneapolis which happens have a lot of medical device manufacturers can you see the job growth in minneapolis is much more likely to have a patent exactly in medical devices when they become an adult. and java group in silicon valley is much more likely to be doing computers. it's very precise in terms of pathways people follow which is exactly in line with what you were describing. i think it speaks of some of the scalability issues because it shows at the national level of pathways people are choosing are influenced by who they're exposed to. finally, to connect this to

communities of color we find in that same data that children who are doing just as well, black kids were doing just as well as white kids when they are in third grade in terms of their math and reading test scores, they are about 10 or 20 times less likely to go on to become inventors, to go until patents and white kids, with comparability in terms of how they're doing early on in scho school. and we think the mechanisms of reason yet that big gap in innovation is precisely because of exposure. what are the internships, the role models, the connections that black kids have relative to white kids of similar ability? when viewed from that perspective these issues of opportunity to connect to the broader context of increasing economic growth in gdp. is not merely about giving kids of color that opportunities so they can succeed in which we think is an extremely important goal. but even for the rest of us that

might be the next person to develop an important blockbuster drug or new iphone and we're missing out on, because they don't have the right set of mentors, because we don't have the right system to bring these kids through. >> can't i piggyback on that? it's ironic you should say that because we are fortunate in the atlanta chapter to have as one of our members, he was the inventor of the super soaker. >> okay. >> and lonnie had, i forget, robbie several hundred patents himself. but what's interesting is as a member of the organization he actually started to take it gets in create a robotics program. we took the kids were in the city working, and he's been working with his kids and got them involved in robotics competition. take on to the first robotics competing and if one first place in the category.

students have never been exposed to working to not only has that -- it's now a program be begin to replicate all of our chapters. more and more chapters of picking up on the first robotics as part of the effort because we did have someone in the group who was exposed to the success of the cut the exposure going. >> i believe in all these things we talk about education and mentorship but i would hope it doesn't give the large financial institutions, banks, insurance companies, the big fortune 100 companies an excuse to not do their part, to hire people of color, give them a real career path to get up to the top levels of the organization, become role models for folks we see some of color, ceo our general counsel or cfo. make sure they know that you toe us spirit they are not mutually exclusive the its complement to the if we do believe in a model of strong mentorship we have to

put people of color in those positions so they can become mentors. >> exactly right. is look at the private equity world, hedge fund world where so much wealth and jobs are created today, you don't see people of color at executives, let alone partners and the vast majority of these institutions. i think are critical right. the employers had to give us a chance to truly succeed, they would be, and mentors of the next generation. we make a difference in her own community. that's so critically important that i think gets lost. well-meaning folks they will do the education piece but not think any of us are good enough to work with them day after day to give us a real opportunity and work with our businesses at the same time. >> as the secretary said earlier, with agreed more than flexibility in the mindset of the money managers who oversee these funds because i see everyday in the corporate perspective, where if you try to

bring a proposal and create some diversity, that whole issue about efficiency, cost worth and i all stockholders a return, either fiduciary duty and responsibility, but we've got great the opportunities for communities of color and we have to take, company snake experiments all the time. this isn't very where they can experiment a lot more. we as an organization and community have to challenge these organizations to do that in a broader way. i'll and he doesn't mind using them as an example but our organization, for example, is a very successful programs that we had to try to build and adapt to fund these scholarships for kids. we challenge the banks in our committee by saying we been putting funds in here, ma but now we're going to create our own rfp. now we want you, banks, to bid for this disappeared we have enough money in there to entice

the bank to come after that are part of that. we got several offerings come back for our private banking systems, members and others. andy has been a mayor, congressman and bastard never had an offer for private taking services until this without. that helped him to save a lot of money because he's financing is college students, college career through home equity oslo and other programs but those options that the broader community had was that even available in the same context. ..

it's really what's coming into play here, bringing you ideas into the boardroom, into the senior executive suite so you actually are creating opportunities for more shareholder value. these are actually credible mechanisms for bringing in new ideas, unlocking new potential wealth. it is not, i would urge us to not think of these at odds at all. you talk about is it an experiment, it might not work, you may not be able to use corporate funds, i don't know if you have to process it like that. i think the example you give is where value was added by virtue of the fact that we were people of color in the right place at

the right time to try something new. >> couple example, i'm on the echelon board and the money manager, eydie brown who has been around for over 30 years, he's a top performer and his mutual fund manager of the year and it took some work to get people to think about using people of color in the management of decision-making but he's done an extraordinary job. it shouldn't be a surprise. robin jackson also often says the baseball team started to play and he helps the team when you get to the world series. the talent is out there. when he was a state senator he fought hard to make sure people were included in everything

because he knew that he had the talent to make those organizations stronger and diversity of thought of the same time. it goes together for a winning strategy. >> i apply it, a lot of what we are hearing to the basic rules of how we engage in the treasury department. one thing we have struggled to do and do well is, with policy prescriptions to some of our hardest problems that actually require people around the table who have something to offer and who come from diverse perspectives. we find we actually lose out if we don't have diversity in the room in terms of bringing to bear the most analytical and exponential forces necessary to make those good decisions. from the boardroom to the policymaking room, the idea that

we need this diversity. that is in this discussion because it's related to the measure ship piece. we need to make sure we create more taurus and the mentorship piece is piece of what started a conversation with having to do with the important factors that are a play that are necessary for thinking about how we bring about greater inclusiveness and participation in the vehicle of opportunity. the vehicles that i want to close with and get a sense from each of you as to what you think we can be doing better both at the private sector level and the government level, to be enhancing those opportunities, the ability to access the tools

that provide opportunity that really are the mobility factors for our people. i will start here. >> i think there are number of policy areas we can be focused on once we recognize that community really seems to matter for opportunities. to take one example, housing policy. we spent about $45 billion in the u.s. for various types of affordable housing programs. housing vouchers, affordable housing in the form of provision by the permit and so forth. we need to think about things that we want to try to achieve because that really matters for children's long-term success areas for less poverty in these communities have concentrated poverty and are the places were seeing the least opportunity.

at a practical level, what might you do? we've seen for instance, in the housing program, 80% of people who have those vouchers, they are using them in high poverty, low opportunity areas. we are working with housing authorities around the u.s. to does develop pilot programs that change the number of people can find affordable areas that deliver much better opportunities for the kids using the same assistance they are getting from the government in a way that is a win win for everyone. there's a real opportunity bargain that can be achieved in many places. that's one example of a simple change that doesn't require additional expenditure, give families better information or

assistance in renting apartments in areas that provide better opportunities. back to make a difference. another example, we have a big tax credit called the low income tax credit in the u.s. the way that credit works is that developers have larger credits to build an area with lower level of income for higher level of poverty. what that does is actually amplifies segregation because rather than having more affordable housing and mixed income, you have additional affordable housing in what our already high poverty areas so you are further segregating them thinking thinking about some of those changes could be quite valuable. also in the context of schools trying to make our ability to

retain effective teachers, pay them higher salaries and give them the incentive to in the public school system, i think i can make a big difference. there are certain charter schools that have been extremely effective in producing good outcomes for kids, figuring out what they're doing and transporting that to the public school system is another area we can look. thinking specifically about these areas in concrete ways for long-term outcome offers a lot of potential. >> i do think private-sector the player big role in helping the improving outcome of the education system. we studied schools in atlanta in the '90s where when we do the initial testing that was only 24% of those kids who are

meeting or exceeding state standards. over ten years, we took 150 or 200 employees agreed to go to that school everyday and tutor the kids in math and reading at the third and fourth grade level the school system provided a bus to pick them up and bring them to school and bring them back. in five years they went from 24% up to 70% and now they are consistently in the high '90s and mid- 90s. offering talent and resources to make a big difference in those communities. if we have an interest and get a financial return if we can big build those products rather than just exporting them into our

community. on the larger scale, private sector can also learn from what government does in its mentor program. we have been able to get a lot more women and minority owned businesses, the private sector has much more flexibility in their ability to make those kind of decisions. i think adopting those programs gives them a chance to grow. i do understand the global economy in the competitive nest that has to occur but we can do more than we bed doing and learn from the private sector not respect. starting with the theme, in chicago we also think about we use to have these

african-american owned businesses that were anchoring businesses on their own. as the first publicly traded american owned business. not only did they have over 500 employees on the south side, mr. johnson worked with law firms, accounting accounting firms and use black advertising to grow advertising became the largest advertising agency in the country. he started independent banks which became the largest black bank in america. it was really the height of power and influence and they needed loans in the bank was there. they advertised in ebony and all these places that made big

differences in those communities where they could go higher people and have a benefit of a strong anchoring institution like that making a difference in our community. he had a quote that i have been keeping in my phone since 1967 when dr. king said i cannot see how the negro will be totally liberated from the crushing weight of poor education, housing and economic strangulation until they have integrated with power into every level of american life. that's kind of the theme that i have been thinking is so important. integrate all of us in every aspect of life and we can make a difference in these community of color that we care so deeply about. [applause] >> i want to thank the panelists

for this important and precise perceptions that you have shared with us. i think the challenge of bringing about a more inclusive group will depend critically on our ability to unlock these opportunities but i think have begun to be unlocked but still require significant attention, significant work by the private sector in the government as well we are aided by significant research which drives us in moving forward and then we are inspired by the work that has been done and of course the work that we know lies ahead. let me thank the audience also listening to this panel, and the panelists for their time and insight today.

[applause] >> very briefly we have a break and we will reconvene in ten minutes just before 1110, but please have coffee and pastries outside and think you all. [inaudible conversation] >> so this treasury department conference on job creation and economic opportunities is taking a short break at this point. they are expected to start up again in about 20 minutes and we will bring you back your life when they resume. the smithsonian national institute of african-american history and culture opened its doors to the public for the first time tomorrow. cspan will be live from the national mall with a ten am dedication ceremony. speakers include president obama and mohney bunch. here's a preview with bonnie

bunch and secretary of the smithsonian institute. [applause] [applause] good morning and welcome. what a crowd. we are excited to have you here and i have good reason to believe that when you spend some time here, you will say you have been delighted to be in the sacred place. you probably thought we brought you here to work. i want you to drop that thought right now. we didn't bring you here to work, we brought you here to be moved and to show you the things that will move your readers and

your listeners to be similarly moved. good morning again. i am from the office of public affairs and media relations, delighted to have worked for so many of you for so many years. i see so many familiar faces of people who have been with us since day one, even before day one before we had a construction site or nearly 40,000 collection items. you have been with us on a magnificent journey and we appreciate your company. our journey has been made smoother, because of a leader. this is a man with extraordinary and unique gifts. we have come to not just admire but count on his wisdom, vision passion and compassion. it doesn't hurt that this man has a wicked sense of humor and plays a mean jazz flute and

saxophone. he's good. please welcome the 13th secretary of the smithsonian institution doctor david j sport and. [applause] >> thank you. it is a pleasure to welcome so many journalists and riders and producers and photographers today. ten days from this day, when this extraordinary museum is dedicated by president obama, our country will have the opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of what it means to be an american. this museum explores our national identity through a lens respecting the life experiences overtime of african-americans. their stories, illustrated

through artifacts and works of art encourage and if termination and innovation and leadership can price it powerful narrative central to our national identity. the idea to establish an institution devoted to african-american history was first suggested by black civil war veterans a century ago. later, herbert hoover proposed to build a memorial memorializing contributions to history and science. it had to await the 21st century before plans started to actually take shape. in 2003, congress passed a registration to make the museum a reality as part of the smithsonian family. we are grateful to president obama into congress for providing ongoing support and

for establishing the museum's counsel which is offered guidance and encouragement over the months and years it took to get to this day. this landmark comes at a significant time in history for the smithsonian and for our country. it will enable us to advance change the democratic mandate and diffusion of knowledge and more eloquent and far-reaching ways than our founding benefactor could have ever imagined. the smithsonian, as you know, is a uniquely a uniquely american institution comprising 19 museums, established at key points in our 170 year history. the inauguration of our newest museum occurs as race and cultural differences dominate the national discourse. this museum can be an ideal

gathering place to learn, to hold conversations to be inspired and to be uplifted. the smithsonian can and should provide a forum for discussions relevant to our mission, especially when these can shine the light on the history and culture of the public we serve. it is true the national museum of african-american history and culture and it is true of all the other museums, research centers and education initiatives. museums in the 21st century are dynamic learning institutions that use the exceptional power of art and artifacts to evoke feelings, teach and energize people and at a time of great cynicism and distrust of so many establishments, of the press and even of government, libraries

and museums remain among the most trusted sources of information in our country. frequently, i visit our museums on my own without my id badge as another visitor to view exhibits along with them. you can actually see people appear to change, especially young people as they explore an exhibition and light up with a spark of of recognition. museums have the capacity to touch lives and transform the way people see the world and interact with each other. the museums of the smithsonian are all working to share the treasures we care for in thought-provoking and engaging ways. the newest member of our family, and the national museum of african-american history and culture is setting the bar even higher for the visitor experience across the smithsonian. opening now, at at a time when

social and political discord remind us that racism is not, unfortunately, i think about past, this museum can and will help advance the public conversation. it was in 18631 writer douglas said, the relation between the white and colored people of this country is the great paramount imperative in all commanding question for this agent nation to solve. a century and a half later, it is high time to honor the words of the statesman who began life as a slave. our newest landmark was created to be a beacon that reminds us of what we were, what challenges we still face and point us toward what we can become. from its extraordinary design, representing openness, strength

and hope, to its collection and building stands of the crossroads of the past of the future, virtually all the objects housed within it were donated by people eager to share parts of their own history with the public. it is the only one of our buildings, including the castle constructed without a pre-existing collection. as you will soon see the objects contained within these walls are as diverse as the people associated with them. some, like the glass top coffin of imminent hill may make you angry or may move you to tears. others, like chuck berries cadillac may lift your spirits. individually and together, these artifacts and documents represent a country that has complicated and is ever evolving. the many people who owned, used,

used, saved and gave us these objects emerged through them as do the artist who created the paintings, sculpture and other work on display. it is they who made this museum a reality. on behalf of the smithsonian and the public we serve, we are deeply honored to and grateful for them. as soon as the vision started to take shape, the enormous cost of the project became apparent. half of the funding required to construct the building was provided through federal appropriation. the remainder needed to be raised from private sources, and from the outset, the outpouring of financial support has been generous and moving. organizations of all kind have joined in the effort from major corporations and foundations to church groups and scout troops. the number of individual supporters is especially

astonishing. there are people who wrote checks for $1 million or or more and those who contributed whatever they could. to date, more than 100,000 people have come aboard as members. this is a record for the smithsonian. we are deeply grateful to each of them and all of those who recognize the importance of this museum and its role in the life of the country. in 2005, work on this project seriously got underway with the appointment of a director lonnie bunch. money bunch is an esteemed educator and a scholar. money must've known the challenges ahead of creating it from stem to stern. in just 11 years he led efforts to design and construct this building, envision and develop a plan for me to museum and leave

the campaign to funding. perhaps the most challenging task in my view that lonny oversaw was creating the collection itself. along the way he put together an incredible staff, a group of talented, bold, smart professionals who you will get to know beginning today. it is my honor to introduce the person who did more than any other to make the national museum of african-american history and culture eight reality, it's founding director, lonny bunch. thank you. [applause]

>> this is the first time i've seen people in here, this is pretty cool. david, thank you so much for your leadership, for your kind words. there was no way this would happen without the kind of leadership that you and richard have given us to make sure that we know the smithsonian is with us every step of the way. thank you so much, david. you know, it's hard for me to remember, but 11 years 11 years ago, we really did start this with a staff of two which as david said, no collection as all we didn't know where the museum would be and we knew we had a raise a lot of money but we didn't know where we would get the money from. all we knew is that we had a vision, a vision that what we wanted to help all who encountered the museum to remember the rich history of the african-american, to tell the unvarnished truth. we felt it was crucial to craft a museum that would help america

remember and confront the tortured racial past but we also thought while america should ponder the pain of slavery and segregation, it also had to find the joy, the hope, the resiliency, the spirituality that was endemic in this community. in essence the goal was to find that tension between moments of tears and moments of great joy. we also knew that remembering wasn't enough. we needed to craft a museum that would use the history and african-american community to better understand what it meant to be an american. the goal was to help all, regardless of race or ethnic city, to help all realize how profoundly effective we are as americans by the african-american experience. in many ways, we discovered that

the afghan american experience is the quintessential american experience. it is the experience that help us understand our notions of optimism, citizenship and the story for us all, not just one community. we also knew we were standing on the shoulders of other museums, large and small, african-american and not who have done so much of the work that allows us to make this vision real. we thought it was crucial that we had to be a place of collaboration, we had to encourage visitors to come to washington and go back and explore the studio museum of harlan or the museum in chicago. it was crucial that we are national network of museums that

cared about the past. i have to tell you, i am so pleased to welcome you here today. this museum on the national mall, or as we all call it, america's front yard, this museum tries to fulfill the dreams of so many generations who believed america would be made better if it understood and grappled with and immersed itself in the african-american experience. i am so pleased to welcome you to the signature building, created by a group in the building was really in the mind of its gifted designer, david, could all the architects stand for me, all who worked on this from an architectural point of

view. [applause] thank you. what i love about it is this building is informed by africa, but it's also shaped by the design of enslaved craft people who created so much of the beautiful ironwork in charleston and new orleans. it's important to remember that this building does not sply look back, but rather it looks to the future by being the first sustainable league old building on the mall. the architects allowed us to do this. this is a place that looks back, that revels in the past but is pointing us toward the future. i am happy to invite you to explore the amazing exhibitions that take us through the history and culture of america through

this lens. it's a result of a collaboration tween if did curators and scholars on our staff and amazing design expertise supplied by ralph and associates who are designers. i have to tell you, we are at this moment, we are at this moment because of an amazing group of people. i cannot think enough the council of this museum. these are people who, for more than a decade gave their time, the laura bushes and the : powell, these these are people who said this story is important enough that i will be here as long as you need and what they did is they provided amazing guidance and they used their considerable influence to help us meet and exceed our fundraising goal. they did more than that.

they helped us believe that we could do this. there was a meeting, i remember in the economy was going bad in the fundraising was going slow and they looked around the room and said lonnie, don't worry, look at these people, we don't fail. they gave us that confidence, their time to make this work and i will never forget that. we are at this moment because it truly takes an institution, the smithsonian institution to birth a national museum. i cannot express h much we appreciate the support of the regents and the senior leadership as they made this endeavor possible. again, leadership is the key from secretary adams to secretary small to secretary and now secretary scored in, the institution has never wavered in the support of this medium. it wasn't has been its number one priority. we are also, as david said, at

this moment, because of thousands of individuals and corporations and foundations who suspended rules, who dug deeply into their pockets to give the museum the support, the money, the collections that it needed to tell the story. i have to be honest, that is the most impressive part of this, that all these people came together and said, we will give whether it is money or our own story through the collections that we will give you, what they made us realize is that the time was now for this museum. we are at this moment because of the bipartisan support that we received in congress. i know bipartisan is not something you here in washington, but we received amazing support and from the early days of john lewis to the sponsorship of people like jc watts and the support of the

current congressional leadership , this has really been an example of america at its best read the people of diffent races, different political points of view coming together to craft something they believe can make america better. finally, i have to say, i need to acknowledge that we have one of the most gifted staff i have ever worked with. in some ways, forgive the sports analogy, this is like the 61 yankee or the 85 bears, these folks can play. i will tell you, led by deputy director, stand up. [applause] few will ever know the sacrifices and the work at they put in, but they will know because what they have done is something that my youngest daughter described, once they

finished the building it means that this building will be available for the public to engage in as long as there's in america. ultimately this museum looks back, helps contextualize where we are and hints at what a future can be and maybe even help us find reconciliation and healing. in some ways, we believe so strongly in the words that james baldwin wrote in 1955, the past is all that makes the present coherent. for us, this is an amazing moment and i thank you so much for being with us. thank you. [applause]

>> the national museum of african-american history and culture opened its doors to the public for the first time tomorrow. cspan will be live from the national mall with the dedication ceremony. speakers include president obama and founding museum director lonny bunch. also michelle obama, george w. bush and mrs. laura bush it, chief justice john roberts, congressman and bill of rights icon john lewis. watch live starting tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> returning live to the treasury department bank conference on strategies to improve jobs and economic opportunity just got underway a few minutes ago. >> i think in light of the name of this forum and building across the street with freedman bank, today's name steak, the

financial services and financial institution and building financial prosperity in individual. >> first of i want to say thank you for allowing me to participate, it's an honor. as we learn about the history and purpose of what this bank was created, it was a response that was needed to address the people at that time and gives them a safe place to keep their resources and a way to actually realize some type of economic prosperity. likewise, financial services today and especially minority banks continue to serve that role. if you think about it, as we look listen to the deputy secretary speak to the macro economic changes that have occurred, that is part of our population.

that was driven, in my opinion by the administration and treasury department response by providing capital when the economy was in a freefall. it provided capital to the banks because the banks are blessed with a charter that gives a powerful leverage. so from my perspective, having spent more than 20 years in mdi and cdi, mdi are like the navy seals. my dad was a navy guy so i am partial to them. they are the specialized forces and tactical operations that need to be able to deal with the disparity we discussed between mainstream america and the minority population. financial services have served a

roll of safekeeping of resources and we get the joy of finding some dreams, people's ability to get college education, to buy home, to build the business, to create job creation, from cradle all the way through the end where their partner in the financial dream and process of enjoying prosperity in the country. it's a privilege, it's a joy and one that we need to strengthen. >> mayor reed, when we think about the role of institutions, sometimes we think of them in terms of buildings and networks and org chart but the fact is, as a mayor you oversee a huge network of people that are really interacting with your citizens every day. howdy think about your own citizens financial lives from the perspective of city government? >> from the perspective of city

government, we want our citizens to have a fair shot and a fair shake. just yesterday i was in the bank and i saw couple that was withdrawing money and getting a cashiers check to go by their first home. it really did bring everything back to center from me from the public service standpoint. as the mayor of a major american city, we have a number of levers to make sure that people have an opportunity to be a part of the economic mainstream. we also have the ability to quickly act when we see programs or initiatives in other cities, other states that are relevant for our citizens. for example, we are partnering with operation hope with our own police department, to send our police officers to financial literacy initiatives because a

number of the members of our police department were experiencing economic stress. now they are going to be partnering with john and going through a program that will make them more financially resilient and make them become better officers because of the stress that comes from financial mismanagement. if you have 2000 police officers that are policing the city, to the extent that we can improve their lives, make them more financially sound and solid, they will probably be a better better officer when they are out there on the street. we try to make sure that the city remains affordable which also creates stress and tension to leverage program like the atlanta beltline which was featured on the front page of the new york times on september 12 is one of the most transformational projects in america and the world.

we have invested $480 million there, it has leveraged three-point to billion dollars in private. [inaudible] as a part of the 40,000 housing units we are going to build on the atlanta beltline, more than 5600 of them will be affordable. that is going to be of course financed in partnership with many of our local banks. so, what we are working really hard at in the city of atlanta is to make sure that we don't lose the equity argument and that we work with our banks as we recover from the great recession. the other thing that i have done is created a cabinet level official who is a chief equity officer. you need someone in the room now who is arguing for the person who is not stopping to think about it. when i have been expanding those

numbers, the biggest expansion of $2.6 billion expansion, because we had a chief equity officer to challenge us, 94% of the of the people of atlanta will be touched by the upcoming referendum on infrastructure. if we hadn't had somebody advocating for people who traditionally don't have an advocate in the room, even when we are goodhearted, there needs to be somebody in the room for finance and developers saying what about those folks over there. all of that comes back to the financial system. finally, i would just say this, it is very important that we understand that there is a different level of experience with financial institutions and really enjoy the process of

educating folks who may not be as comfortable with banks and investors. that is why i was so thrilled about the treasury department's leadership on my ira. the program isn't being talked nearly about but is a very simple method where anybody has the opportunity to start an ira that's portable. when we launch that initiative when they came to atlanta, i was thrilled because it is another level that a mayor can use to create a more equitable city which is going to be the big debate in america over the next ten years. people are moving from the suburb into cities at a level that is unprecedented, certainly in the past 40 years and we are going to have to have a big

national conversation about how we pull that off in terms of making sure the folks that are already in the city get to stay in the city and welcome the people who have decided to make the city home. i think atlanta can do a national model because inclusion and equity is a part of our dna, primarily because of leaders like doctor martin luther king and ambassador andrew young and other civic and business leaders. >> i think it is so striking that in this conversation about prosperity and financial inclusion, we have talked about comfort and stress and so john, i want to to turn to you to talk about these two sides of the coin. i think it's so notable how many

of our financial decisions are driven by stress and how much we see when we talk to low income americans across the country that their decision not to use banking products is driven in large part by lack of comfort. you spent and enormous amount of time thinking about how financial stress operates in communities and individuals in finding ways to build bridges between that place of financial stress and financial discomfort with the economic system and build a bridge into banks, creditnions, minority depositories. what about these levers of stress and comfort and how they operate in what we can do to bring more people in. >> well, first and foremost, i must say, for the record, he is amazing.

you don't often hear that. i hugged you, let me just say we are sitting in a moment of history right now. history never feels historic when you're sitting in it. it just feels like another day. we went to the grocery store, he went to his kids baseball game, it was it was 13 years, it wasn't all marching in fancy speeches, it was a lot of boring meetings, but in hindsight we look back and thank you for putting your foot into the gap and thanks for putting your shoulder against the will. in my opinion, when you met and bass are young, he said your last name sounds familiar, that's because your grandfather stood next to doctor king

marching in those southern towns no wonder he's a public servant. the mayor has a history of public service, it goes deep in his family's bones. my guess is you have a history of public service that goes deep in your bones. so i want to acknowledge and say that secretary lou is probably the most progressive secretary of the treasury, putting a black man on the 5-dollar bill, doctor king, i'm sorry, a black woman on the front of a 20-dollar bill and alexander hamilton. renamed the freedman bank and that was just extraordinary that he did that and forever more that will be our history. you stop and think, you just have to say thank you to people for doing the right things because they didn't have to do it, can we just say thank you?

[applause] you are all heroes and she rose. we have one of the most effective mayors in the country. this is all the same conversation. it goes back to your point. the civil rights movement was not about a black man trying to sit next to a white man. it was a campaign for respect and dignity. this is not about financial literacy. se, this is about respect and dignity. we just happen to live in an economic age. i think while all of our problems are the same, i think when the white man has a headache, we have pneumonia. after years of jim crow and slavery, it is not unfair to say

that african americans might be clinically undiagnosed as depressed. if that's the case and if confidence and self-esteem is critical to success, then without confidence and self-esteem and a good environment you don't have hope and without hope you don't have opportunity and without that it you are actually poor and it has nothing to do with money. you have to get people back to their self. you don't know what you don't know and that's what kills you. living in a free enterprise is not to understand the rules of free enterprise but the definition of slavery. we've got some work to do and that work is not just analytical work and that's why i commend you for doing a form, it's right brain aspirational work that reintroduces people back to their human potential because

that human potential becomes economic energy in that economic energy. we just have to find the jobs on the south side of detroit. that's not going to happen without an economic system, a banking system that can meet them halfway. when i discovered the freedman bank history, my life changed. all of my work in all of my dreams clicked. i had finally figured out that poverty amongst people of all races made sense. whether you are white, rural or economically depressed, there are more poor whites or your black and brown, you are telling

the same stress. underneath what we think is race, it's not, underneath class is poverty. if everybody was doing well economically, we wouldn't have these problems that we have in the united states right now. if everybody was getting along just fine. the so-called problem are not yellow, their their green. it's economic. going in resetting the economy in those small towns, mostly caucasian and educated, we let them through another upset. they have a reason to be upset. black and brown have the same issue. what the mayor has done is to take the emotion out of it and i'm going to actually solve the emotional issue. we have to get the emotion out

of the issue to solve it. this is very ironic. this is an emotional issue, an issue of dignity, it's an issue of fair play, but if you get emotional, i guarantee you will lose. you can't react, you have to respond. the mayor who i'm sure once to curse every other day because someone is saying something radical is smooth and balanced and reasonable and he listens to everybody, just like doctor king dead. the president does the same thing. the treasury does same thing and are able to find this ground. the only international city in the south and the number one place for black people to arrive. we have challenges, yes, but we are addressing those. were not avoiding them and sweeping them under the carpet. we are addressing them. i think that we've got mines to

respond and not react to the inequality and unfairness and in balance and then we have to do something about that that addresses the emotions and the inequality and gives people a legitimate place to stand so what i have done is taken the race out of the issue, taking the emotion out of the issue and said these communities whether there white, rule, rule, black, brown, urban, they are critical to our neighborhoods. every place where we have fallen and nothing squinted change your life more than god above. i just figured out that these opportunities don't lie of any race. we need the credit score up and finish what lincoln did, i guess we'll come back to this later that takes the inequality and the emotional sense of

unfairness, turns it on its head and makes it something that's measurable that you can build your self-esteem and wellness and your credit's core goes up and your self-esteem goes up and your sense of well-being, your choices, your options and now you want to be a homeowner. now you want to create a job. we start getting a memo on money. that's what happened when the freedman bank failed. we didn't get the memo on money and free enterprise. that gives me hope. it's not like we are dumb or stupid, we just and get the memo. when you give a whole generation, a hundred million people the memo of economic gdp in america is going to go through the roof. all wealth comes from poor people. in a strange way in life, it's it's the pain in the sacrifice

and the injustice that gives the opportunity for the rainbows. you cannot have a rainbow without a storm first. >> you refer a lot to the power of symbols, to understand the economic mechanism and connect them to symbols that allow people to connect them selves to a system of opportunity. in your business, when you were giving out mortgage loans or financing small businesses, and now today when you are acting as an investor in minority on suppository institutions, how do you connect those individual stories to the powerful symbol of a bank of a ceo of an african-american woman or the

goal that sits on the bank building that tells people about their community. how do you connect the raw economic job, small business, how it's going to make money the symbol in the story both of a person's own empowerment or the goal that an institution plays. >> it's really through our customers, as we are able to, when i became the ceo, we had customers that have been in place for generations and that's many of our banks that have been around for decades. the work is not due. he is third-generation ceo. when you are able to actually show people, show them men and women whose lives have been able to transform, there's nothing

more powerful. oftentimes when we would go through our audit process, i would say okay, we can work with these numbers but they don't really tell the story, the story is in the faces of the young students, the kids who we brought to the bank and they all open savings account and you see them smiling and now when they're sleeping, they are understanding compounding interest. they're making money while they sleep. we need to share those stories with them and allow them to become excited about money and transforming their lives as they grow up. so many of our customers can benefit and have been with us a long time. that's why this new movement is so powerful and so exciting for our banks. >> how do you cross that story. you've talked to some of interacted with operation hope and they want to be an entrepreneur and they sit with

one of your bankers and turns out maybe that business plan doesn't make sense yet. it doesn't pencil out. you might say to the loan officer, how do you help them make that transition from a person who has an idea and a dream to a person who's actually ready to start a business. what is the role of the banker and doing that and how does that process actually work? >> i'm so glad you asked that because as i mentioned, i really do men mean that. we specialize, customize every day and it's actually sitting down with the individual, unless they've actually developed their plan, rolling up your sleeves being able to take the time to sit with them, work through cash flow, actually help them may be secure an account by providing them with resources, referring

them to score, pulling together the things that are practical to allow them to go from a-to-z. again why our banks are so important is we know what it's like to actually grow our businesses so we have a unique understanding of that individual sitting across from us. there's a role in the country for all institutions, but ours is very specialized and very unique and very necessary. when you are very large scale it's critical. the routine, the road miss of it is how you can make money, and i have worked in banks of all sizes. it is sitting down with that individual, rolling up your sleeves, spending late nights

and many of our customers come in and we help them balance their check books, their seniors, we show them how to write their first check, we are doing whatever is necessary to help them become engaged and involved and successful in the financial and banking system. >> one of the things that is interesting, when you look across the country and especially when you talk about financial empowerment, it's the role of partnership, especially between cities and financial institutions. both in individual lives and in more general development. how do we think about managing and developing your set of partnerships, whether it's in direct service or broader infrastructure products with financial institutions and what is the kind of power that you have been able to drive from that type of relationship? >> a number of things leading to these have great banks. i was actually in washington, i can't remember where i was flying, but just the other day,

the bank celebrated its anniversary and wherever i was in america, by 11:00 o'clock i was back in atlanta. when i was growing up used to be big t bank with a series of mergers and the bottom line is, the city of atlanta is unique in the south because we had great banking institutions. we had first atlanta, we had the southern which is now part of bank of america and really because of a mistake that the georgia legislature made, actually the city of charlotte that the banking industry that atlaa would've had. we ended up being fine anyway, we had the third largest concentration of fortune 500 companies but our legislature didn't change the laws fast enough when charlotte and north carolina were changing.

with that said, i think in atlanta i have a group called the atlanta of progress which is the 25 largest ceos that i meet with on a quarterly basis which includes the leaders of our main banks and so it helps to create synergy in terms of the direction of the city and it also allows you to make a request and have a terrific relationship. i think increasingly, businesses understand that with health and prosperity comes a social demand it doesn't have to be hostile or overly aggressive, but you do have to ask because leaders of banking institutions are frequently preoccupied with running their businesses read what i found is, if i have an initiative in atlanta where we pay for college tuition of kids

that graduate from high school. i've got to raise a significant amount of money to do that. it's a very comfortable cause for me to pick up the phone and call people that i work with on an array of issues. the bottom line is, i think great cities have great banking relationships. you need to keep the lines of communication open and you do need to make a demand around equity. i find that as long as you work at the relationship, being mayor of a city me you don't ever really know when you need to have a mutually beneficial relationship but it really is like gardening. you have to get the weeds out and that's how i'm looking at our relationships in the city of atlanta and that's why we have built an economy that now has a gdp in excess of 305 billion in

the atlantic metro and our gdp is larger than 30 states. >> if you look where the city of atlanta came from, from the time you are ambassador and mayor, it's definitely one of the most economic stories in the life of america and i think ambassador young is right that it really does follow a freedman bank model that actually got done and it would've been impossible without the political relationship in the business relationships working hand-in-hand and it would've been impossible without strong banking systems. finally i want to say this, i think leaders of major american cities need to be far more conscious of our role of making sure that america has greater gdp growth and that is something that more more sophisticated

mayors are thinking about. if you believe in america's unique role in the world, you need to have cities that are well run and growing. in order to meet all these obligations, the u.s. gdp is around 21, 22, 23% give or take 23% give or take. the question for us is how fast the population is going to maintain that. to the extent that we meet our obligations around the world, we are going to have healthy kids. 75% of our gdp growth, i think all of this is going to fall on us and on theirs and on cities. if we don't continue to focus it on this equity issue like a laser, we will continue to see incidents like we are watching right now in charlotte. let me tell you, when you have these moments of controversy, you had better be a mayor in a

city that can calmly explain what you did before the moment of tension. what you did with banks, what you did on housing, what you did on certification and having a police force that mirrors the population and officer involved shootings, what you did on a number of instances that your police force has had with officers. one of the best quotes i heard recently, i was talking to a banker about gdp growth. we would really like to be at 3% and i think if we had help we could get to three and a half or four. he told me a joke, he said when we talk about gdp growth somebody says what's the difference between two and 3% and people say it's just one point. the banker said to me, he said it's actually 50% rate, i mean

this is good stuff. it really does make sense. two or 4% isn't two points, it's 100% growth of america's gdp. it was a special moment for me. that was as well put as i have heard why i need to do a good job of running the city of atlanta. so i think it really does bring your mission as a mayor to focus and understand why you are not doing people a favor to get these issues of equity right. so as a result, last year, the city of atlanta had to point new billion in new construction, that's the the highest construction activity in the history of the city of atlanta. , including the olympic games.

>> think the concept of touch points, how many different touch points, you went through the number of ways as a mayor that you need to be representing to your citizens that you looked out for their interest, you thought ahead, and then in any individual's personal life, you, you can think about how many different touch points there are with the city or financial system and john, i know when your work in operation hope, you are constantly thinking about those touch points whether it's middle school exposure or entrepreneurship concepts or being able to walk into a bank branch and even if that bank is not ready to serve or give alone , how do you think about constructing an ecosystem where there are enough positive touch points that if someone tries to

construct their financial lives, they are getting lots of opportunity as positive outcome. we know it's not that there's just one moment, i learned about compound interest in the fifth grade. after that i'm fine. that's not how anybody works. it's constant exposure, constant guiding people back into the right place. how do you think about constructing these touch points and making sure that they are all pushing individuals in a positive direction and giving the positive feedback so they can transform their lives? >> i think that if you want to put a kid asleep, give him a financial literacy course. i'm in a remember that for my 2-year-old. a traditional left brain,

analytical, 4o1k program will put the kids to sleep. it would put anybody to sleep. we've not connected education with aspiration. it's not any more complex than that. those kids want a job in a shot of economic opportunity. we've been thinking in some ways too hard about this stuff and people who mean well say they're not successful, no you're not speaking to them in a way or a language in which they can actually hear you. i think young reverend murray taught me something, listen without being defensive and always leave your adversary because if you don't it's going to wreck your life and make your

ms. life miserable. why is that important? when we deal with north carolina , the minute you start getting into blame, you're done done. but you have to respond from the neck up. the mayor responds by reacting from the neck up. you have to think about these things and then you have to make it relatable. it takes 20 years to change a culture. i think in the last 20 years. [inaudible] we need to make smart sexy again in the way we've done that in our model is to embed education and aspiration and uplift into something that is viewed as out of touch which is the banking system pi think the banking system has a moral calling. banks have to become, once again, a moral calling, not a place to make money. you cannot uplift the gdp or city without an ethical banking system.

now, connecting it to where we are today to me. [inaudible] because banks traditionally discriminated, 30 years ago, i would say what bankers can't say , they won't say this, but almost by law statute, and for good reason they almost have to say no to someone they think is a nice person because if you get a credit score that's 500 or 550, when they take your application, they know you can't approve you but they can't fail you so they have to go through the entire process, four to five days, the appraisal and the whole thing and they give you a no. now the persons upset. they say see i know this was a waste of my time.

what we have done in memphis, when you think about this, think about going into target and sing starbucks on the right. you go in and use the outreach on the right. if it's not going well and she's getting the client. she's trying to buy home. she gets declined, she comes to work, we do at the banker can't do which is actually tell her why she was declined, pull her report with her permission, what is this, that's not mine. >> that must be an error. you should dispute that. why would i dispute it. >> you do have a right. if you dispute that in the credit viewer can confirm within 30 days by law, they must remove it. nobody knows that.