formatting link
of Americans Living in Poverty Rises to Highest Level Since 1993 By SABRINA TAVERNISE Published: September 13, 2011 WASHINGTON ? Another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty in the United States last year, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, and the number of Americans living below the official poverty line, 46.2 million people, was the highest number in the 52 years the bureau has been publishing figures on it.
And in new signs of distress among the middle class, median household incomes fell last year to levels last seen in
1997.Economists seized on a telling statistic: It was the first time since the Great Depression that the median American household had a lower income, adjusted for inflation, than
13 years earlier, said Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard University.