Seems I’ve heard a lot of discussion about wealth in the US during the last few months.  Probably, in part, because of rhetorical questions I’ve posed on this blog.

Here’s an interesting passage and table from the following report by the Federal Reserve which analyzes a cross-section of the US taxpaying population in terms of wealth and income.  I will say no more, because this data is, as all data is, limited in what it can say about any particular point of fact or policy position.

Ponds and Streams: Wealth and Income in the U.S., 1989 to 2007  

Mean net worth is estimated to have been $556,000 in 2007 and the median $120,300 (table 2, top panel). These values are significantly higher than the corresponding values in each of the surveys dating back to 1989; these differences reflect a series of significant upward shifts starting in the 1998 survey and continuing in each survey through 2007, except for a pause observed in the 2004 survey.17 From 1989 to 2007, the 10th percentile did not change significantly. The 25th percentile in 2007 was significantly higher than only the corresponding values in 1989 and 1992; 1995 marks the last and only notable increase over the full period at this percentile. The 75th and 90th percentiles moved up significantly in 1998 and 2001, but were not significantly different either earlier or later. Thus, the data show a picture of varying growth across the distribution, suggesting that some measures of inequality might show significant change.