If the economy is cooling, consumers aren’t noticing. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index climbed to minus 29.2 in the week ended April 14, the highest since January 2008, from minus 34 in the prior period. The jump was the biggest...
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Photograph by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Consumers Most Confident in Five Years
Photograph by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
People are reflected in the side of a Cigarette boat as they look at boats on display at The Miami International Boat Show.
Consumers: No Hint of Job-Market Slump
The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index was at minus 34.1 in the week ended March 31, up less than a half point from the prior week as measures of the state of the economy and buying climate improved. What’s been the...
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Photograph by Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
A woman shops at a Quiksilver store in Times Square in New York, on March 12, 2013.
Bloomberg by the Numbers: 5.9
That’s how much the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index advanced in the past six weeks. The index, which asks consumers to rate the national economy, their personal finances and the buying climate, rose to minus 31.6 in the week ended March...
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Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
A shopper organizes his cash at a Best Buy Co. store in Peoria.
Economic Confidence: Gallup Survey Against Grain of Consumer Indices
There are indicators, and there are indicators. One of the leading indicators of consumer confidence, the Conference Board, reported today that confidence reached its lowest level in more than a year in January as renewed payroll taxes took a bigger...
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Photograph by Scott Olson/Getty Images
A customer in a show room in Niles, Illinois.
Bloomberg by the Numbers: 12.9
That’s how much the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index rose during 2012. The index, which measures Americans’ perceptions of the national economy, their personal finances and the buying climate, was minus 31.8 in the week ended Dec. 30, compared with minus...
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Photograph by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
A customer, right, shop for a powerboat on Dec. 17, 2012 in North Miami, Florida.
Bloomberg by the Numbers: 15.5
That’s how much the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort index rose in the past 17 weeks. The index, which asks Americans to rate the national economy, the buying climate and their personal finances, improved to minus 31.9 in the week ended Dec....
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Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Valley Appliance employees deliver a Maytag Corp. electric stove to a customer in Princeton, Illinois.
Bloomberg by the Numbers: -34.4
That’s the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index for the week ended Nov. 4, the highest rating of the economy in more than four years. The index, produced for Bloomberg by Langer Research Associates, asks people to rate the national economy, the buying climate...
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Photograph by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
People attend the launch of the unaffiliated political organization known as No Labels in New York City.
Independents: It’s Not My Party — and I’ll Vote How I Want To
Just one in four voters call themselves Republicans. That’s the finding of the latest Pew Research Center poll, one of the best around. Party affiliation, Pew’s Andy Kohut tells us, is like a political state of mind — it ebbs...
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Photograph by Justin Lane/EPA
A job fair in Brooklyn, New York.
Bloomberg by the Numbers: 36
That’s the percentage of people who said this month that the U.S. economy is worsening, according to the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index. It’s the highest percentage since January and up from 33 percent in June. About 25 percent said the...
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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.
