Finally, a piece of good news from the economy.

The Census Bureau says the typical U.S. household's income rose 5.2 percent in 2015 to $56,516. That is still below the median household income of $57,423 in 2007, when the Great Recession began.

Those living in poverty also fell last year, and fell to to 13.5 percent. That's a drop of 1.2 percentage points from 2014, the largest decline in poverty since 1999.

How reliable is this number as an indicator? Do other economic trends bear out this news?

With AP files

Guest:

Nick Timiraos, national economics correspondent for The Wall Street Journal in Washington, D.C., who’s been following the story. He tweets from