The American Dream is slipping further away from the vast majority of Americans than it has in a quarter century. Now 90 percent of US households are poorer than they were in 1987, according to both a new study and the head of the Federal Reserve.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new, harsh reality is that the bottom 90 percent of households are poorer today than they were in 1987,\u201d<\/em> Matt O\u2019Brien wrote in the Washington Post Wonkblog, citing data from a new National Bureau of Economic Research<\/a> (NBER) paper on U.S. wealth inequality, which he says is based on tax data. \u201cIt’s been a lost 25 years for the bottom 90 percent, but a lost 15 for the next 9 percent, too. That’s right: altogether, the bottom 99 percent are worth less today than they were in 1998.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Federal Reserve Board Chairwoman Janet Yellen delved deeper into the statistics at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Economic Conference on Inequality of Economic Opportunity last Friday.<\/p>\n The wealthiest five percent of American households held 54 percent of all wealth reported in the 1989 survey. Their share rose to 61 percent in 2010 and reached 63 percent in 2013,\u201d<\/em> she said. \u201cBy contrast, the rest of those in the top half of the wealth distribution \u00e2\u20ac\u2019 families that in 2013 had a net worth between $81,000 and $1.9 million \u00e2\u20ac\u2019 held 43 percent of wealth in 1989 and only 36 percent in 2013.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe extent and continuing increase in inequality in the United States greatly concern me,\u201d<\/em> she noted. \u201cI think it is appropriate to ask whether this trend is compatible with values rooted in our nation\u2019s history, among them the high value Americans have traditionally placed on equality of opportunity.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Karim Basta, chief economist at III Associates, praised the speech for focusing on a non-traditional topic for a Fed chair \u00e2\u20ac\u2019 namely the outlook for the US economy or interest rates.<\/p>\n