A pair of interesting charts (via Kevin Drum) were released by the Pew Economic Mobility Program. They do some fancy statistical work to try to do an apples-to-apples comparison of today's 45 year olds with the economic welfare of their parents' generation at 45. The good news is that despite median wage stagnation, on this measure there have been income gains across the spectrum (citations of the median tend to miss the fact that the composition of the population changes over time).

But in terms of wealth, the situation looks much bleaker. Here you see gains for the top 40 percent. but not the bottom 60 percent.

Read the full article at slate.com.