, Columnist
New Inequality Numbers Are a Gift to Campaign Sloganeers
The Fed developed a data set that throws wealth disparities into high relief.
Not just central banking.
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/Bloomberg
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Studying wealth and income inequality has long been the stomping grounds of economists with the time and willingness to dig into 19th-century tax ledgers, Gilded-Age stock ownership and pre-Great Depression bank holdings.
For the do-it-yourselfers the entire exercise just became a lot easier, with the release by the Federal Reserve of a vast run of information on U.S. wealth distribution. It has something for everyone, making it simple to cherry pick your favorite data point and support your philosophical views on just about anything -- taxes, wealth and inequality.