Net Worth

ACCORDING TO Tom Shapiro, any discussion of racism in America must begin with the fact that even when African-Americans reach the same education, job, and income status, the net wealth of African-Americans remains today a true pittance compared to that of white Americans."

Somebody walked into Hunt Valley Travel recently and booked an $11,000 honeymoon, a 10-day, island-hopping idyll to the South Pacific.At Kent Fisher Furs in Towson, a customer left with a $40,000 Russian golden-sable coat.Dahne & Weinstein Jewelers in Lutherville sold almost all its fine German gold -- starting at $5,000 per piece -- many days before Christmas. "That's the first time that's happened," said owner Stephen Weinstein.Across metro Baltimore and, indeed, many parts of the country, Tickle Me Elmo dolls aren't the only things vanishing from shelves.

FORGIVE THE obvious statement, but here goes: The mega-rich hold fast to their money, which is why they're the mega-rich.Think about it. If you give away 10 million here and 10 million there, pretty soon you're talking about real money.But I'll bet you don't know why so many of the mega-rich insist on becoming so obscenely rich. I always assumed it was because they were self-serving, avaricious cads and louts who cared about no one but themselves -- and had the prenuptial agreements to prove it.But no.It isn't the money.

She professes to be the budget expert in the Republican gubernatorial field, but House Minority Leader Ellen R. Sauerbrey said yesterday that she does not know how much she and her husband, Wilmer, are worth.While touting her proposed 24 percent tax cut, Mrs. Sauerbrey said she had "put her money where her mouth is," offering to give up her $120,000 salary as governor if she cannot push through the budget cuts needed to pay for the tax relief.But when pressed about whether she can afford to live a year without pay, she refused to estimate her family's net worth.

Financier Tom J. Billman, who had led authorities on a four-year, international chase, was convicted yesterday of fraud for plundering more than $100 million from the now-defunct Community Savings and Loan in Bethesda.After a two-month trial and almost six hours of closing arguments, U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz said the evidence was conclusive that Billman had drained Community of millions of dollars to prop up his failing real estate companies and had pocketed substantial sums for himself.

Net worth of typical family fallsThe net worth of the typical American family fell 12 percent between 1988 and 1991, the U.S. Census Bureau reported yesterday, reflecting declines in home values, savings and checking account balances, rental property and business assets. The typical family's net worth was $36,623 in 1991, compared with $41,472 in 1988, the bureau said.U.S.-Japan trade talks failThe United States and Japan ended two days of trade talks yesterday without agreement and facing "substantial stumbling blocks" in their race to rewrite the rules of trans-Pacific commerce, U.S. officials said.

Sam's Bagels & More is offering its customers more than just its chocolate chip, banana, jalapeno and other flavors of bagels -- it's offering them a piece of the action.In an unusual move for a small company, the owners of the 2-year-old Baltimore bagel business last week sent out 1,500 postcards to customers asking if they would be interested in owning part of the business. Of course, an investment will cost a bit more than a 55-cent cinnamon raisin bagel -- $9,999.45 more.Allan D. Gallant, chairman and chief executive officer of Bagels Inc., the company that owns the two Sam's Bagels shops, said the idea of offering stock to consumers came from the patrons themselves.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland said yesterday that it earned $9.4 million for the period that ended March 31, up 5.6 percent from the same time last year, thanks partly to continued profits from its health maintenance organizations.The state's largest health insurer, which reported a 7.9 percent increase in revenues, said, however, that its managed-care companies lost 5,000 members in the first quarter of 1993 as competitors moved into the state.The company's strategy has been to acquire and build a managed-care organization.

SEC accuses Hoffenberg of fraudSteven Hoffenberg, the would-be New York Post buyer and self-proclaimed champion of "ordinary citizens," was accused yesterday by the Securities and Exchange Commission of cheating widows, retirees and thousands of other investors out of scores of millions of dollars over nearly four years.The SEC said that Mr. Hoffenberg took in more than $215 million by selling notes after he fraudulently inflated the income and net worth of his Towers Financial Corp., the debt-collection business that he once said he would use to buy the struggling newspaper.

In the first strict by-the-book accounting of its finances since the mid-1980s, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland reported yesterday that it reduced its net worth by 75 percent from levels reported earlier in 1992, to $25 million as of Dec. 31.At the same time, the state's largest health insurer reported an operating profit of $40.8 million, its best since 1984.The Blues also reported net earnings of $10 million from subsidiary operations, mostly from health maintenance organizations, for the year that ended Dec. 31. In past years, that figure almost always has been a negative.

Despite the weak economy and worker furloughs, a new report gives Maryland a "B" when it comes to the overall financial stability of its residents. The nonprofit Corporation for Enterprise Development, which has been tracking economic data for 30 years, Monday released its Assets & Opportunity Scorecard that grades states every other year on a variety of financial factors. "It's better than a 'C'," says Andrea Levere, the group's president, referring to Maryland's overall grade last time.

EDF to sell assets to make up for 2008 earnings drop Electricite de France SA, Europe's biggest power producer and a nuclear energy partner with Baltimore's Constellation Energy Group, will sell assets to cut debt after 2008 earnings declined, and it missed estimates on costs associated with regulated power rates. Paris-based EDF will focus on cutting net financial debt by almost $7 million over this year and next after two acquisitions in the past six months. It agreed in December to buy half of Constellation's nuclear energy business for $4.5 billion.

Here's some news guaranteed to make your blood boil if you are among the millions of hard-working Americans who feel like they are in an economic free fall: There is a new class of super rich in America that has grown by leaps and bounds in the past 20 years. And, by the way, its members are getting richer than ever today, even as your standard of living sinks. Untold Wealth: The Rise of the Super Rich, a CNBC documentary premiering at 10 tonight, reports this trend, with correspondent David Faber interviewing economists, historians, a psychiatrist and several of the super rich who try to explain the hows and whys of this societal shift.

You've known it. You've probably known it for months. But the official measurements are finally catching up, reflecting the increasing economic pain that many Americans are feeling. The unemployment rate rose 0.5 percent in May, to 5.5 percent, the biggest one-month jump since early 1986, the federal government said yesterday. Continued job cuts are putting adults out of work and leaving in the lurch many teenagers looking for summer income. Meanwhile, net worth is falling as people's homes lose value.

Now that August recess is upon us and many people are about to join Congress on vacation, it's a good time to tackle those financial chores you have been putting off. Maybe you've been meaning to organize papers stuffed into shoe boxes or finally order a free credit report to see what creditors say about you. Or, maybe you have a little down time with no travel plans and aren't sure where to start. Here is a list of financial exercises you can undertake in your time off. You don't have to do them all. Just doing one or two could put your finances in better shape.

By the time Candace Kirby and Patrick Letts Jr. say "I do" this summer, they want to be on their way to a solid financial life together. It's not that the Baltimore couple lacks romance: Kirby's parents are the hosts of a destination wedding at a Florida winery, and the couple will then sail off for a weeklong Caribbean cruise. But there's a practical side to Kirby, 25, and Letts, 24. Both are living with their parents, which helped them to be able to prepay the honeymoon trip. Letts paid cash for the engagement ring, and both have been aggressively paying down auto loans and stashing away money for a down payment on a home.

NORWALK, Conn. -- U.S. accounting rule makers adopted a standard yesterday that will force companies to disclose the future costs of retirement benefits on their balance sheets, wiping out billions of dollars in net worth. The Financial Accounting Standards Board's rule will increase balance-sheet liabilities of the largest U.S. companies by $466 billion, reducing their net worth by 7 percent, according to estimates by Howard Silverblatt, an analyst at Standard & Poor's in New York. "This standard will substantially improve the clarity, completeness, timeliness and usefulness of financial reporting for investors and all others who rely on this information in financial statements to make financial decisions," said Rebecca McEnally, director of capital markets at the CFA Centre for Financial Market Integrity, an advocacy group affiliated with the CFA Institute in Charlottesville, Va. CFA is the designation for certified financial analyst.

The results look impressive at first. Buried in last month's snapshot of household finances by the Federal Reserve is evidence of encouraging gains by ethnic minorities, who have never shared in American bounty the way whites have. Driven largely by rising home prices, wealth in Hispanic and nonwhite families increased an average of 24 percent from 2001 to 2004, according to the Fed's important Survey of Consumer Finances, conducted every three years. And average wealth in African-American households rose by an even better 37 percent over the period.

The economy may be chugging along, but the gains are not trickling down to many American families' incomes and net worth. New government figures released yesterday show the median value of families' holdings barely budged from 2001 to 2004, rising just 1.5 percent, after registering double-digit gains for the previous six years. The median income edged up 1.6 percent, after adjusting for inflation, during those years, according to the Federal Reserve's 2004 Survey of Consumer Finances.

ARE RICH people stingier than the rest of us? Charity staged a bit of a comeback last year, but giving by the wealthiest Americans is still sharply lower than during the stock market bubble years, a new study asserts. Average donations reported by households with $5 million or more in assets, excluding primary homes, decreased by 70 percent, to $180,000, during 2002-2004, according to Spectrem Group, a market research and consulting firm. That compares with an average of $600,000 for 1998-2000, the firm said.