Poverty and Income News feed http://www.cbpp.org/topic/?fa=topic&id=36 en-us Copyright 2008 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. All rights reserved. Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:00:03 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Two recent, little noticed government reports spotlight the strained living conditions of millions of U.S. families. One report shows that the number of Americans threatened by hunger inched upward for four straight years from 1999 to 2003, with one in eight people falling in this category in 2003. The other report examines a long list of hardships that are tied to poverty status. Our own analysis, combining measures used in that report, finds that 8 million poor and … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/Up6Ndk1DBug/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=1473 Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:43:16 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=1473 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/G9gbZHSGlXU/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2919 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2919 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/G9gbZHSGlXU/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2919 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2919 Poverty increased, median household income fell, and the percentage of Americans with employer-based health coverage continued to decline in 2008, according to Census data for 2008 issued today. The figures reflect the initial effects of the recession. Median household income declined 3.6 percent in 2008 after adjusting for inflation, the largest single-year decline on record, and reached its lowest point since 1997. The poverty rate rose to 13.2 percent, its highest level … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/cDZbO-diO3s/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2914 Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2914 Robert Greenstein discusses today’s grim Census Bureau report that shows the nation lost substantial ground in 2008 on poverty, median income, and the number of people who are uninsured. Several aspects of the Census report are highlighted. Duration: 11:59 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/qL-cY2onJU8/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2912 Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2912 Today’s grim Census Bureau report shows the nation lost substantial ground in 2008 on poverty, median income, and the number of people who are uninsured. Several aspects of the Census report stand out. The number of people living in poverty jumped by 2.6 million to 39.8 million — the highest since 1960. The poverty rate — the percentage of people living in poverty — also rose, to 13.2 percent, which is its highest level since 1997. Similarly, real … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/GE9fOpv_t3k/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2911 Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2911 Although meant chiefly to help the broad economy, the stimulus plan Congress enacted earlier this year (the American Recovery and Re-Investment Act of 2009, or ARRA) had the important secondary effect of significantly ameliorating the recession’s impact on poverty. This analysis, which comes one day before the Census Bureau will release updated poverty figures (for 2008), examines seven of the recovery act’s provisions — two improvements in unemployment insurance, three tax … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/0ACoNXxDeYw/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2910 Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2910 Two-thirds of the nation’s total income gains from 2002 to 2007 flowed to the top 1 percent of U.S. households, and that top 1 percent held a larger share of income in 2007 than at any time since 1928, according to an analysis of newly released IRS data by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez.[1] During those years, the Piketty-Saez data also show, the inflation-adjusted income of the top 1 percent of households grew more than ten times faster than the income of the bottom 90 … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/GUcKvzRUULk/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2908 Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2908 As mounting job losses threaten to push more Americans into poverty and make poor families still poorer, a new examination of the public benefits system finds that it is more effective in reducing poverty than previously known but has become less effective over the past decade in protecting Americans from deep poverty. To paint a fuller picture of the effect of the public benefits system (sometimes referred to as the “safety net”) in reducing hardship, this … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/0-V6woCVexw/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2859 Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2859 New data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show that in 2006, the top 1 percent of households had a larger share of the nation’s after-tax income, and the middle and bottom fifths of households had smaller shares, than in any year since 1979, the first year the CBO data cover. As a result, the gaps in after-tax incomes between households in the top 1 percent and those in the middle and bottom fifths were the widest on record. The data reveal starkly uneven income growth over … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/6m1eOk3cq1Y/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2789 Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2789 Income Inequality Within the States: Ratio: Incomes of Top Fifth of Families Compared to Incomes of Bottom Fifth of Families State-specific fact sheets containing information on income inequality over the past two decades, including the changes in average incomes and income ratios, are provided through the links below. All fact sheet data is inflation-adjusted. … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/w5DthCouOzQ/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2716 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2716 I. Executive Summary A state-by-state examination of trends in income inequality over the past two business cycles finds that inequality has grown in most parts of the country since the late 1980s. The incomes of the country's highest-income families have climbed substantially, while middle- and lower-income families have seen only modest increases. In fact, the long-standing trend of growing income inequality accelerated between the late 1990s and the mid-2000s (the latest period for which … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/lKnHoy3Q1fI/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=255 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=255 The gap between the richest and poorest families, and between the richest and middle-income families, grew significantly in most states over the past two decades, according to a new study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute. In fact, the nation’s longstanding trend of growing inequality accelerated since the late 1990s as incomes fell for poor families and stagnated for middle-income families in a number of states. The study, based on … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/ymIWoSL94Oo/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=257 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=257 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/406WC0hRGWk/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2677 Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2677 Thank you for the invitation to testify about widening income inequality in the United States. As former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has said, “this is not the type of thing which a democratic society — a capitalist democratic society — can really accept without addressing," and I commend the subcommittee for holding this hearing. My testimony falls into three parts. The first is an overview of the data on household income and its distribution, where I … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/KSLcR2oldMk/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=564 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=564 On August 26 the Census Bureau will release findings on household income and poverty for 2007. These figures may well show that median income increased modestly and poverty declined modestly in 2007, the typical pattern for years well into an economic expansion. While improvements in incomes and poverty would certainly be good news, they should be viewed within the context of the expansion as a whole. 2007 marked the sixth — and probably the last — full year of the … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/7WndddM8s24/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=605 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=605 The number of Americans in poverty climbed by 816,000 in 2007, while the poverty rate remained statistically unchanged, overall median income rose modestly, and the number and percentage of Americans without health insurance fell somewhat, according to Census data issued today.  But the poverty rate remained higher, median income for working-age households remained lower, and the number and percentage of Americans without health insurance remained much greater than in 2001, when the last … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/-OAzdp1JdS0/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=621 Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=621 This audio presentation covers the following: What do the new data show about poverty and poverty trends for the population as a whole and for specific demographic groups such as children and racial minorities? What do the data show regarding trends in income and in income disparities? What do the data show about the number and percentage of Americans in general, and of particular groups of Americans, who lack health insurance? What do the data suggest about how low-income … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/9mk-bwmtqB0/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=622 Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=622 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/Lp-S1p_gMQM/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=1281 Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=1281 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/ELOqNe1lvag/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=1282 Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=1282 Thank you for the invitation to testify about widening income inequality in the United States, including the impact of recent developments in financial markets and the economy. As former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has said, “this is not the type of thing which a democratic society — a capitalist democratic society — can really accept without addressing," and I commend the committee for holding this hearing. My testimony falls into three parts. The first is an overview of … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/rkEaZoLBsLU/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=787 Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=787 [T]he current downturn is likely to cause significant increases both in the number of Americans who are poor and the number living in "deep poverty," with incomes below half of the poverty line...There are a series of steps that federal and state policymakers could take to soften the recession’s harshest impacts and limit the extent of the increases in deep poverty, destitution, and homelessness. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/LVJnWCM0aSI/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=1290 Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=1290 This audio presentation discusses the findings of an analysis, which: examines the impact of recent recessions on poverty and deep poverty (incomes below half of the poverty line); discusses recent changes in the safety net that could weaken its ability to address the increase in need during this downturn; and outlines steps Congress can take as part of an upcoming economic recovery package to stave off large increases in severe poverty and hardship. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/ySZLjFPHyuI/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=1293 Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=1293 Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about the current recession, its impacts on poverty and families, and the recovery package. The current recession already has pushed up the unemployment rate from 4.9 percent in December 2007 to 7.6 percent in January 2008. Alternative measures of the labor market paint a bleaker picture. Almost one in seven workers — some 13.9 percent of all workers — are unemployed, involuntarily working part time, or are jobless … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-PovertyAndIncome/~3/NGStS9c72DA/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2544 Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2544