The Independent, reporting on the first Barack Obama-Bruce Springsteen podcast: “If you ask me theoretically, ‘Are reparations justified?,’ the answer is yes,” Obama replies. “There’s not much question. Right? That the wealth of this country, the power of this country, was built in significant part, not exclusively, maybe not the even majority of it, but a large portion of it was built on the backs of slaves.” How much? More likely, almost none. I’ve been asking for some time for examples of Southern dynastic wealth that survived the Civil War and Reconstruction, and have gotten very, very few responses.