Friday, December 14, 2012

Did Poverty Rise or Fall?

Adjusted for taxes and benefits.

Aloc Sherman says it was constant.

Jared Bernstein says America had “the deepest recession since the Great Depression and poverty didn’t go up.”

Shawn Fremstad says says "Social insurance and the Obama Stimulus, limited as it was, have and continue to play a fundamentally important role in limiting the damage. But even taking that into account, real poverty really did rise during the recent recession."

Contrary to Mr. Fremstad's claims, my post on this matter clearly explains that I do not have my own estimate and that "The measurement of poverty and its trends is an important and continuing research area, and future research could suggest that the poverty rate had increased."   Perhaps Sherman and Bernstein are wrong. Perhaps they are right. Maybe what Mr. Fremstad really advises is not to rely on Sherman and Bernstein.

No comments: