Chad Stone is chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities. We learned earlier this year that incomes at the
very top began to rebound in 2010 from the financial crisis and
Great Recession and that, in that year, about a fifth of total
before-tax income went to the top 1 percent. This week, the
Federal Reserve released information for 2010 about the
distribution of wealth (or "net worth") that reminds us that
wealth is even more highly concentrated than income. First,
let's define our terms: A family's income is the flow of money
coming in over the course of a year from earnings, dividends and
interest, Social Security, etc. Its wealth is the stock of
assets it has from inheritance and saving, minus its
liabilities. Assets include savings, stocks, vehicles, homes,
business and financial assets, and so on, while liabilities
include credit card debt, mortgages, past-due bills, and so on.
The Fed's report is based on its triennial Survey of Consumer
Finances, and provides literally a wealth of d