PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Janet L. Yellen
TI  - Perspectives on Inequality and Opportunity from the Survey of Consumer Finances
AID  - 10.7758/RSF.2016.2.2.02
DP  - 2016 May 01
TA  - RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
PG  - 44--59
VI  - 2
IP  - 2
4099  - http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/2/2/44.short
4100  - http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/2/2/44.full
AB  - During the past several decades, the United States has experienced its most sustained rise in inequality since the nineteenth century. The U.S. distribution of income and wealth is now wider than in most other advanced countries. To provide a factual basis for further discussion, this paper reviews trends in income and wealth inequality over the past several decades, and then discusses four significant sources of economic opportunity in the United States: the resources available for children in their most formative years, affordable higher education, private business ownership, and inheritances.