BUSINESS MEMO: FAMILY WEALTH UP

Thanks to a good economy and a booming stock market, the typical American family saw a huge 17.6 percent jump in family wealth in the mid-1990s, according to a new government survey released Tuesday.

The Federal Reserve reported that the typical family's net worth rose to $71,600 in 1998, up from a net worth of $60,900 in 1995, after adjusting for inflation. At the same time, the Fed found that families earning less than $25,000 a year saw their median net worth slide with the poorest suffering a drop of 25 percent.

Net worth represents a family's assets in such things as bank accounts, stocks and a home, minus the family's liabilities, covering such things as a home mortgage, car loans and credit card debt.