NPR.

Here on the indicator, we look through the flashy, do-mongering that you might see in the

news, and we like to show a balanced analysis of the world as it really is.

So this week we bring you three indicators of things that we admit have a starting point

that isn't so great, but zoom out the lens a little. They are not as bad as they could

have been. Could have been worse, shrug emergency.

This is the indicator from Planet Money, I'm Whalen Wong.

And I'm Darien Woods. This week we're joined by Jeff Cuo from Planet Money, A.J.F.

Guys, it's so exciting to be here. I have been looking forward to this literally all week.

We are thrilled to have you. It is mutual.

So this week, Jeff Darien and I will be talking child poverty, the Ethereum merge, and a

very unusual bank hold up in Beirut.

First up, now could have been worse indicators. We've got Whalen Wong.

My indicator is 5.2%, that is the child poverty rate in 2021 according to the US Census Bureau.

And of course, any amount of child poverty is unacceptable, but this is a huge drop.

The rate was almost 10% in 2020. This new rate 5.2% is the lowest rate ever recorded.

That reminds me of the stories we've done over the last couple of years on child poverty.

And in particular, the one on the expanded child tax credit, where families got checks for

thousands of dollars in the mail last year. And it looks like these relief measures showed up in the census

numbers in this really noticeable way.

It did, yeah. But then, you know, even zooming way out and looking at the child poverty rate over time,

there's been this really big improvement. So a new analysis this week from The New York Times

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