A Double Standard Recovery

According to Federal Reserve data, the top 5 percent own 82 percent of the individually held stocks and more than 90 percent of the individually held bonds.

By helping to re-inflate the stock market in 2009 and 2010, the Fed created a two-speed recovery. The wealthy quickly recovered much of their wealth as stocks, which constitute almost 40 percent of their wealth, doubled in value. But the rest of the nation, whose wealth depends largely on houses, remained mired in recession.