Morningstar Perspectives Features a Knowledge@Wharton Study

Warming up for my Outlook 2011 post, I discovered the excellent Perspectives column on Morningstar.com. This week, they clipped a study by Knowledge@Wharton on Post-Recession America. The study uses information from the recent census.

A startling statistic is the number of Americans living below the poverty level. One in seven people are living on incomes deemed below the poverty level. This is the highest rate of poverty since they made these statistics available in the 1960s.

Friday's unemployment rate increase to 9.8% is another reminder of the very slow pace of the recovery.

Back to the Knowledge@Wharton article, they cite falling incomes and birth rates. The drops were measured using 2009 vs. 2008.

I would characterize the mood of the article as somber but they had a hopeful ending for the poor. They expect the poverty rate to decline quickly as the employment picture brightens.