Because of these differences, wealth inequality increased during the first two years of the recovery. The upper 7% of households saw their aggregate share of the nation’s overall household wealth pie rise to 63% in 2011, up from 56% in 2009. On an individual household basis, the mean wealth of households in this more affluent group was almost 24 times that of those in the less affluent group in 2011. At the start of the recovery in 2009, that ratio had been less than 18-to-1.

Household wealth rebounded by $5 trillion in the first two years of the economic recovery, from 2009 to 2011. But, in a familiar story, most of the benefit went to those at the top . The bottom 93 percent of households lost $600 billion, according to Pew Research, while the top 7 percent—those with more than $836,033—gained $5.6 trillion. That's a loss of 4 percent vs. a gain of 28 percent.The main reason for this difference is that the stock market rose while the housing market stayed flat, and people at the top are more likely to hold financial assets, while those at the bottom and in the middle have more of their assets in their houses. In fact, the percentage of less affluent households with stocks, mutual fund shares, and IRAs actually declined between 2009 and 2011. (And, of course, there are plenty of people who have little in the way of wealth at all.)Just one more data point showing how a few at the very top really live in a different world from everyone else.