Tagged: economy

Updated 2:46 p.m. with additional contextual information

A newly released report shows that nearly 15 percent of people in Missouri are poor.

The Census Bureau's annual report released Tuesday offers a snapshot of the economic well-being of U.S. households for 2010, when joblessness hovered above 9 percent for a second year.

Nationally, nearly 1 in 6 people were classified as poor.

Meanwhile, the share of Americans without health coverage rose from 16.1 percent to 16.3 percent - or 49.9 million people - after the Census Bureau made revisions to numbers of the uninsured. That is due mostly to continued losses of employer-provided health insurance in the weakened economy.

In Missouri, 14 percent of residents lacked insurance.

But how does today's data compare with the numbers in years prior?

For St. Louisans, there is one nugget of good news amidst the plunging Dow and struggling economy: gas prices are falling steeply in the St. Louis area.

Experts say the price of a barrel of oil dropped after Standard & Poor's lowered the nation's credit rating by one notch last week.

The price of gas fell below $3.20 per gallon at many stations in the St. Louis area on Monday. Just a little over a week ago, drivers shelled out more than $3.60 for a gallon of regular unleaded at some stores.

Thank you for joining us for the live broadcast of the President's remarks.

President Obama addressed the nation this afternoon regarding the current economic situation. You can review a live-blog of the President's speech via NPR's "The Two-Way."