Economic inequality in the United States

This Economic Letter is adapted from the 2006-2007 Economics of Governance Lecture delivered by Janet L. Yellen, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, at the Center for the Study of Democracy, University of California, Irvine, on November 6, 2006. ; My topic today is the performance of the U.S. economy, with a focus on how trends for the economy as a whole have been playing out for our nation's individuals and families. One area I'd like to examine in particular is how the income that has been generated by our economy over the past three decades or so has been distributed among the various income groups, from the top to the bottom.