The top 0.2% of the US population has a net worth equal to that of the bottom 90%.

Judge against recognised US wealth-distribution estimates available around September 2017 (for example Saez–Zucman, the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, or the World Inequality Database). TRUE: an estimate shows the top 0.2% of the population's share of net worth roughly equal to the bottom 90%'s share (within about 10% of each other in relative terms). MOSTLY TRUE: the equality holds for a closely adjacent group (for example the top 0.1%) rather than exactly the top 0.2%, or the two shares are within about 20% of each other. MIXED: the shares are of the same order but differ by about 20–40%. MOSTLY FALSE: the top 0.2%'s share is far from the bottom 90%'s share, even though the top group holds a disproportionate share. FALSE: mainstream estimates contradict it outright (for example the bottom 90% holds several times the top 0.2%'s wealth).

Set before the research began.

1. E1 FRB: FEDS Notes: The Increase in Wealth Concentration, 1989-2013 Federal Reserve Board (FEDS Notes) · 5 June 2015

   “Saez and Zucman (2014) use administrative income tax data and estimate that the top 0.1 percent (by wealth) had a wealth share of 22 percent in 2013”

2. E2 FRB: FEDS Notes: The Increase in Wealth Concentration, 1989-2013 Federal Reserve Board (FEDS Notes) · 5 June 2015

   “The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) shows less than half the increase in the top 0.1 percent wealth share, rising from 11 percent in 1992 to 14 percent in 2013”

3. E3 FRB: FEDS Notes: The Increase in Wealth Concentration, 1989-2013 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FEDS Notes) · 5 June 2015

   “Saez and Zucman (2014) use administrative income tax data and estimate that the top 0.1 percent (by wealth) had a wealth share of 22 percent in 2013, up from 11.5 percent in 1989”

4. E4 FRB: FEDS Notes: The Increase in Wealth Concentration, 1989-2013 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FEDS Notes) · 5 June 2015

   “The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) shows less than half the increase in the top 0.1 percent wealth share, rising from 11 percent in 1992 to 14 percent in 2013”

5. E5 Wealth Inequality in the United States since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data The Quarterly Journal of Economics (Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman) · May 2016

   “The bottom 90% (144 million families with $84,000, on average) owns about as much as the top 0.1% (160,700 families with net assets above $20 million). Both groups possess about 22% of US”

6. E6 Wealth Inequality in the United States since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data The Quarterly Journal of Economics (Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman) · May 2016

   “In 1989, the SCF and capitalized income estimates coincide, but the SCF top 0.1% wealth share then rises only modestly from 10.8% in 1989 to 13.5% in 2013.”

7. E7 QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS - Gabriel Zucman Gabriel Zucman (author-hosted copy of The Quarterly Journal of Economics paper) · May 2016

   “The top 0.1% wealth share has risen from 7% in 1978 to 22% in 2012, a level almost as high as in 1929.”

8. E8 QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS - Gabriel Zucman Gabriel Zucman (author-hosted copy of The Quarterly Journal of Economics paper) · May 2016

   “Estimates based on estate tax returns, by contrast, find that US wealth inequality is low and stable, with a top 1% share of barely 20% (Kopczuk and Saez 2004), less than in countries like Denmark, Finland, and France”

In their 2016 QJE paper, Saez and Zucman find that the bottom 90% of US families owns about as much as the top 0.1%, with each group holding about 22% of US wealth (E5). The Federal Reserve note gives the same 22% top 0.1% share for 2013 (E1, E3). So the equality holds for the top 0.1%, a closely adjacent group, rather than the top 0.2% that Dalio named. The criteria rate that outcome mostly true. The Survey of Consumer Finances puts the top 0.1% share lower, at 13.5–14% (E4, E6), but no evidence here gives that survey's bottom-90% share to compare it with.