This Friday, June 15, 2012 photo shows Kathy Miller, president of Total Event Resources, at her offices in Schaumburg, Ill. In 2008, her events planning company was having its best year ever. She and her husband had set aside money to put their two sons through college, with enough left in savings for "a very nice life" in the Chicago suburb. Then the financial crisis sent the stock market tumbling and the corporate customers who had kept Miller's company busy, stopped calling. When the government reported that the Great Recession claimed nearly 40 percent of Americans' wealth, the figure alarmed economists. But for families across the country, the numbers merely confirm that they are not alone. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)