Written by Steve Matthews If you’re looking for an unconventional way to assess the mood of the country and economy, check out U.S. birth and marriage rates. Americans had 3.96 million babies last year, the fewest since 1999 and a...
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Photograph by Catherine Ledner/Stone+/Getty Images
Birth Rate: Ultimate Index of Consumer Confidence (Down)
Photograph by Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo
President Barack Obama at the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 13, 2012, in Des Moines.
Bloomberg by the Numbers: 9.5
That was President Barack Obama’s margin of victory by percentage points in the 2008 election in Iowa, where he’s campaigning on a bus tour for three days this week. Today the president visits the communities of Oskaloosa, Marshalltown and Waterloo....
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Photograph by Justin Lane/EPA
A job fair at a state office building in Brooklyn, New York.
Fist-Bump or Moment of Silence — How the Jobs News is Delivered
For a jump on the nation’s monthly unemployment and payroll figures, watch who walks a brown envelope from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to the West Wing tonight. Caveat: You probably can’t get a good view, because you don’t have...
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Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
A waiter at a restaurant in New York.
Waiters w/ College Degrees: Up 81%
It’s harder to change the world on a diet of canned beans and frozen corn, often the dinner staple for 24-year-old Darien Buckley. She has yet to find a job that utilizes her double major in photography and communications after...
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Photograph by J. Pat Carter/AP Photo
Workers urge new citizens to register to vote after a naturalization ceremony in Miami.
Magic Number of the Day: 6.2 million
That’s the number of Hispanics in Colorado, Florida and Nevada, according to Census Bureau population estimates as of July 1, 2011. There were 4.36 million Hispanics in Florida (23 percent of the population), 1.07 million in Colorado (21 percent) and...
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Photograph by Chris Hondros/Getty Images
Advertising for Liberty Tax service in New York.
Magic Number of the Day: $62 billion
That’s the increase in state government tax collections for fiscal year 2011, according to a Census Bureau report released yesterday. Collections rose to $763.7 billion from $701.6 billion in fiscal year 2010, an increase of 8.9 percent. Total tax collections...
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Photograph by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Mitt Romney after he handed out sandwiches to supporters at Cousins Subs on April 3, 2012 in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Mapping Romney’s Wisconsin Win
Mitt Romney won Wisconsin the same way he has won many other Republican presidential primaries: with big wins in major population centers that outvoted rural areas where the former Massachusetts governor did less well. Though Romney won just 26 of...
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Photograph by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images
President Barack Obama on the wall of an artist's studio in Pawlet, Vermont.
Vermont: Land of Cheese and Presidential Dough
There aren’t many Vermonters, but they do give generously to presidential candidates. Vermont, which President Barack Obama is visiting today on a fundraising trip, is one of just five states where contributions have averaged more than $1 per resident. Bloomberg...
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Photograph by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Newt Gingrich supporters before at an election night party on March 13, 2012 in Birmingham, Alabama.
More Religious = More Republican?
The more religious a state’s residents, the more Republican-leaning a state tends to be, Gallup data show. In the 2008 presidential election, McCain won 17 of the 19 states where at least 43 percent of respondents said they were “very...
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Photograph by Mario Tama/Getty Images
The Positive Brothers perform in New York City.
Magic Number of the Day: 80.7
That’s the share of the U.S. population that lived in urban areas in 2010, the Census Bureau said yesterday. It’s up from 79 percent in 2000. The Census Bureau says that urban areas “represent densely developed territory, and encompass residential,...
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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.
