Is it the best of times or the worst of times?

In the Spring 2009 Journal of Economic Literature, Christian Broda, Ephraim Leibtag and David E. Weinstein report on "The Role of Prices in Measuring the Poor's Living Standards". They find that the poor pay less, not more. And once this is properly accounted for, poverty rates in America are much lower than we hear via the daily drumbeat -- and real wages higher. Read it.