This indirect approach helps explain why the entire bottom 50% of the wealth distribution is lumped together (the other categories are the 50th to 90th percentile, 90th to 99th and top 1%). The Fed (pic) simply does not possess enough information about the balance sheets of less-affluent households to get much more granular than that.
WHICH part of the US wealth distribution saw its net worth rise the fastest over the past year, five years and decade? No, not the top 1%, according to the distributional financial accounts published last month by the Federal Reserve.
The rich had a great run, but they didn’t even come close to the percentage gains in real wealth seen by the bottom 50%. These amounted to 21.9% over the past year, 125.6% over five years and 526.2% over 10 years, compared with the one-percenters’ 10.3%, 33.8% and 83.9%.
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