Photograph by Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
Dental work performed at a free health clinic for the uninsured and underinsured at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.
Health Care Costs Slow: Inflation Curb
The cost of health care in the U.S. is rising at the slowest pace in four decades, helping curb inflation. The consumer-price index dropped 0.4 percent in April from the prior month, a second consecutive decrease and the biggest since...
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Photograph by Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
A customer browses shoes at a Coach Inc. store in New York.
Payroll Tax Cut Most Paychecks: Survey
The outlook for consumer spending may hinge on what 55 percent of American households do next. That’s the share of respondents who noticed their paychecks had gotten smaller at the start of the year when the payroll tax reverted to...
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Photograph by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
New homes are under construction at a housing development on March 6, 2013 in Gilbert, Arizona.
Real-Estate Agent Earnings Point to Home-Price Jump
While prices for most commodities are falling, real-estate values are surging. The Labor Department’s report on producer prices today showed wholesale costs dropped 0.7 percent in April from the prior month, the biggest decline in three years, Bloomberg’s Alex Kowalski...
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Photograph by Kristian Helgesen/Bloomberg
Maersk Line, the world's biggest container shipping company, will stop plying through the Panama Canal to move goods from Asia to the U.S. east coast as bigger ships help the company move it profitably through Suez Canal.
Import Prices: Disinflation Concern
To anyone worried about global disinflation, today’s Labor Department report on the cost of goods imported into the U.S. will prove sobering. The import-price index dropped 0.5 percent in April from the prior month as fuel costs retreated 1.7 percent....
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Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Pedestrians carrying shopping bags cross the street in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
Consumer Spending Off to Unexpected Good Start
Americans shopped for more clothing, electronics and sporting goods and frequented more restaurants in April, leading to an unexpected 0.1 percent gain in total receipts, according to a Commerce Department report. Economists today raised tracking estimates for consumer spending for the...
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Photograph by Matt York/AP Photo
Allen Harding, of Armasight, demonstrates his products on March 12, 2013 at the Border Security Expo in Phoenix. More than 180 companies are exhibiting their security products despite automatic spending cuts that are affecting every federal government agency due to the government sequestration.
Biggest Sequestration Hit: Next Qtr
Most economists project the second quarter will take the biggest hit from the mandated cuts in federal government spending, or sequestration. Economists at Goldman Sachs Group think the worst is yet to come. The topic of how much the economy...
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Photograph by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Job seekers wait to speak to representatives of employers at a job fair at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan on March 6, 2013 in New York City.
March Job Openings Confirm Downshift
The Labor Department’s report on job openings today basically confirmed what we already knew — the job market cooled in March. The slowdown in payroll gains, however, reflected more than just less hiring as the report also showed firings picked...
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Photograph by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
People looking for work stand in line during a job fair at the Miami Dolphins Sun Life stadium on May 2, 2013 in Florida.
Fed Holding Benchmark Rate Near Zero Until 2016: Analysts
The Federal Reserve will hold its benchmark interest rate near zero, where it has been since December 2008, until early 2016 even as the jobless rate falls. That’s the conclusion of economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in New York....
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Photograph by Patrick Fallon/Bloomberg
An employee demonstrates how to prepare a room for guests at a hotel in Los Angeles, California.
Job Market Better-Looking in Rear-View Mirror
The more time government statisticians have to crunch the numbers, the stronger the job market looks — that is assuming you’re not looking to earn in the six figures. On March 8, the Labor Department said employers added 236,000 workers...
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Photograph by Natalie Behring/Bloomberg
A worker paints a refrigerated railcar in Portland, Oregon.
Data: Manufacturing Slump Less Than Meets the Eye
The most respected early read on the state of U.S. manufacturing in April came out today and showed factory activity cooled last month. The details of the data suggested the worst may already be over. The Institute for Supply Management,...
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Contributors
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Al Hunt
is a columnist for Bloomberg View and host of the weekly show "Political Capital with Al Hunt" on Bloomberg TV. -
Mark Silva
is deputy managing editor for government news in Washington and editor of Political Capital. He has covered the White House and national politics. -
Emma Fidel
is political editor for Bloomberg.com in Washington. She previously covered financial regulation as a Bloomberg intern. -
Don Frederick
edits political and government coverage for Bloomberg News. He previously worked for more than a decade at the Los Angeles Times' Washington bureau. -
Gregory Giroux
analyzes elections, financing of congressional and presidential elections, political advertising and demographics in Bloomberg's Washington Bureau. -
Julie Bykowicz
covers the influence of money and lobbying in Washington, and covered the state legislature and city crime for the Baltimore Sun for 10 years. -
Jonathan Salant
covers campaign finance and lobbying in Washington. He was president of the National Press Club and started in Washington in 1987. -
Richard Rubin
covers federal tax policy. He worked at Congressional Quarterly and The Charlotte Observer before joining Bloomberg News in 2010. -
Julie Hirschfeld Davis
is a senior political reporter for the Washington Bureau. She covered the 2012 campaign for Bloomberg News and previously covered the White House for the Baltimore Sun. -
Lisa Lerer
covers the White House and covered the 2012 campaign for Bloomberg News. She covered Congress, lobbying and the 2008 campaign for Politico. -
John McCormick
is a national political reporter looking forward to the 2016 presidential campaign, which will be the fifth he's covered. He's also reported for The Des Moines Register and Chicago Tribune. -
Julianna Goldman
covers the White House for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Television. -
Hans Nichols
covers the White House for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Television. -
Margaret Talev
covers the White House for Bloomberg News and covered the White House for McClatchy Newspapers. She has covered California and Florida politics. -
Cary O'Reilly
is Editor at Large at Bloomberg First Word and is Washington Daybook columnist for Bloomberg Government and Bloomberg News.
