That’s the number of U.S. homes that are in foreclosure or for which mortgage payments are at least 90 days past due, according to a Bloomberg News estimate from data released by the Mortgage Bankers Association. That’s a decrease from...
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Photograph by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Angela and Michael Daniels help clean up in front of a foreclosed home, owned by Bank of America, on May 3, 2012 in Miami.
Magic Number of the Day: 5.05 million
Photograph by Francis Gardler/Lincoln Journal Star/AP Photo
Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer.
Magic Number of the Day: 39
That’s the number of women who have served in the U.S. Senate in its history, from 23 states. That number probably will rise after the November election because a few women are major-party nominees for Senate seats. The upset victory...
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Photograph by Rick Friedman/Corbis
Mitt Romney pumping diesel into his campaign bus in Randolph, NH.
Magic Number of the Day: 21
That’s the decrease in price, in cents, of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the past 40 days. The price was $3.727 yesterday, down from $3.936 on April 4. The average price for the year is $3.674. President Obama,...
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Photographer Brendan Hoffman/The New York Times via Redux
The Obama re-election campaign in Richmond.
Magic Number of the Day: 378
That’s the number of electoral votes in states that President Barack Obama or Arizona Senator John McCain carried by a margin of more than 10 percentage points in the 2008 presidential election, adjusted to reflect new electoral vote allocations after...
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Photograph by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Cynthia Quiroz directs people to the Liberty Tax Service in Miami.
Magic Number of the Day: $59.1 Billion
That was the federal government’s budget surplus in April, the first time since September 2008 that revenues exceeded outlays in a month, according to a Treasury Department statement. Receipts often spike in April, when individuals face a deadline to file...
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Photograph by Jonathan Ernst/Bloomberg
Walking past a Leica Camera AG store.
Magic Number of the Day: -40.4
That’s the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index for the week ended May 6, the lowest level for the measure since early February. The index, which asks people to rate the national economy, their personal finances and the buying climate, declined for...
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Photograph by Darron Cummings/AP Photo
Sen. Richard Lugar after his concession speech on May 8, 2012, in Indianapolis.
Landslide Lugar Primary Loss Biggest For A Senator Since …
That Senator Richard G. Lugar was defeated for re-election in a Republican primary in Indiana yesterday wasn’t a surprise to anyone who had watched the tide turn against the 35-year senator in the past few weeks. What was stunning was...
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Photograph by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Heading to a job fair in New York City.
Magic Number of the Day: 3.4
That’s the number of unemployed people per job opening in March, according to Labor Department figures. There were 12.7 million unemployed and 3.74 million job openings that month. Openings rose by 172,000 to their highest total since July 2008.
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Photograph by Arthur Schatz/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
Indianapolis Mayor and Senate candidate Richard G. Lugar, left, with his campaign chief at the Indiana state Republican convention.
Magic Number of the Day: 12,910
That’s how many days that Senator Richard G. Lugar, an Indiana Republican who may be defeated for re-election today in his party’s primary election, has served during a tenure that dates to 1977. Lugar, 80, is the longest-serving Republican senator...
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Photograph by Ty Wright/Bloomberg
Footballs laced at the Wilson Sporting Goods Co. Wilson Football Factory in Ada, Ohio.
Magic Number of the Day: 19
That’s the number of consecutive months in which the U.S. economy has increased its nonfarm payrolls, though the gain of 115,000 in April was the smallest increase since last October. April was the third consecutive month in which the increase...
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Contributors
-
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.
