Matthew Yglesias writes that the economy is atrocious. He bases this, in part, on on this article which says that poverty has risen for the fourth year in a row. I went and read the article. It included some positive points.

“Commerce Department spokeswoman E.R. Anderson said they mirror a trend in the ’80s and ’90s in which unemployment peaks were followed by peaks in poverty and then by a decline in the poverty numbers the next year.”

I hope that is it.

“The number of people without health insurance coverage grew from 45 million to 45.8 million last year, but the number of people with health insurance grew by 2 million.”

Was the number with health insurance so large they didn’t want to tell us about it?

Okay. The government census does say poverty is increasing.

The poverty rate in 2004 (12.7 percent) was 9.7 percentage points lower than in 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates are available (Figure 3). From the most recent trough in 2000 both the number and rate have risen for four consecutive years, from 31.6 million and 11.3 percent in 2000, to 37.0 million and 12.7 percent in 2004 respectively.

I hope it is a sign we are “on the road to a turnaround.”

The article does not try to minimize the problem, but does offer some perspective.

The poverty rate in 2004 (12.7 percent) was 9.7 percentage points lower than in 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates are available (Figure 3). From the most recent trough in 2000 both the number and rate have risen for four consecutive years, from 31.6 million and 11.3 percent in 2000, to 37.0 million and 12.7 percent in 2004 respectively.