A story from AP’s Hope Yen headlines, Census finds record gap between rich and poor.

Well, actually, Timothy Noah explains, it doesn’t, “if you follow the standard measure of income inequality, Yen is incorrect. Income inequality in 2009 did not differ in any statistically significant way from income inequality in 2008.”

Noah continues:

What’s interesting about the alternative measure Yen used is that it (or something like it) happens to be favored by conservatives (and also some nonideological contrarians like Georgetown economist Steven J. Rose, author of Rebound, and Reuters blogger Gregg Easterbrook, author of Sonic Boom) who argue that all this talk about income inequality is overblown. To me, the news in the AP story isn’t “Income Inequality on Rise.” Rather, it’s “Inequality Minimizers and Deniers Hoist by Own Petard.” …

The Census Bureau’s standard measure of income inequality is based on household incomes. For sticklers, that’s problematic because a household can be a sprawling family of 12, or it can be a single elderly retiree. Different groupings require varying quantities of cash to get by. That’s often why those who deny or minimize the income inequality claim that the official numbers are illegitimate. When you factor in differences in household size and circumstance, they say, income inequality is not as bad. They’re right.

To answer this criticism, the Census published, alongside its standard calculation, a separate calculation that was equivalence-adjusted…. By this unofficial measure, which is what the AP’s Yen chose to use, income inequality is not as great as it is by the Census’ standard measure…. But that’s not the end of the story. When you calculate using equivalence-adjusted data, income inequality is shown to have grown at a much faster rate over the past three decades than it is when you calculate using the Census’ standard measure.

This also caught my eye:

Since the early 1990s, the main driver of income inequality has been skyrocketing incomes at the top. But during the recession the main driver appears to be an increase in the poverty rate steeper than anything we’ve seen since 1994. (See accompanying chart.)

So now the poor are getting poorer, too. So much for that greedy rising tide lifting all boats.

RELATED: Reihan Salam says Noah’s gloss on the numbers seems a bit confused. I find Salam’s argument unpersuasive.

Noah’s 10-part Slate series (PDF; serial version; slide show) on income inequality in the United States was published through the first two weeks of September.