Poverty Increasing US adds 3.8 million more to ranks of the poor as poverty rate jumps. US poverty rate hit 14.3 percent last year, up from 13.2 percent in 2008. The jump bring the number of the poor to its highest level since 1959, five years before the Johnson-era War on Poverty. By Ron Scherer The deepest recession in modern times has sharply increased the ranks of the poor during the past [...]