Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Valley Appliance employees deliver a Maytag Corp. electric stove to a customer in Princeton, Illinois.

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 and their personal finances on a scale of plus 100 to minus 100, then averages the results of the three responses. Twenty percent of those surveyed had a positive view of the economy.

With the presidential race over and the job market seeing improvements, the sentiment may continue to rise, according to Joseph Brusuelas, a senior economist at Bloomberg LP.

“The underlying improvement in the trend across all major consumer confidence readings will reassert itself in coming weeks,” Brusuelas said. “That being said, given the damage from the storm, a transitory downdraft in consumer comfort should be expected.”

In the week leading up to the election, the CCI among Democrats fell to minus 23.5 from minus 22.9 the previous week. Republican sentiment decreased to minus 39.6 from minus 37.8. Sentiment among Independents, or swing-voters, rose to minus 39.7, the highest since June, from minus 40.7 the prior week.

“There was a clear political element to economic views heading into the election,” with Democrats being the least pessimistic, said Gary Langer, president of Langer Research Associates.

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The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, compiled by Langer Research Associates in New York, conducts telephone surveys with a random sample of 1,000 consumers 18 and older. Each week, 250 respondents are asked for their views on the economy, personal finances and buying climate; the percentage of negative responses is subtracted from the share of positive views and divided by three. The most recent reading is based on the average of responses over the previous four weeks.

The comfort index can range from 100, indicating every participant in the survey had a positive response to all three components, to minus 100, signaling all views were negative. The margin of error for the headline reading is 3 percentage points.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: -34.4 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Erik S. Lesser/EPA

GOP cufflinks during a rally in Atlanta.

That’s the difference in consumer confidence between Democrats and Republicans as measured by the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index for the week ended July 22.

The index — a measurement of respondents’ views on the economy, the buying climate and their personal finances on a scale of minus 100 to plus 100 — was minus 27.8 for Democrats and minus 45.1 for Republicans, a record 18^th consecutive week that consumer confidence was higher among Democrats than among Republicans. The overall index was minus 38.5.

Consumer confidence usually is higher among Republicans because they are financially better-off than Democrats. The results probably are influenced by a presidential election fewer than 15 weeks away. Democrats are promoting President Barack Obama’s economic record as he seeks re-election, while Republican challenger Mitt Romney and his allies point to a national unemployment rate above 8 percent for 41 consecutive months.

The results “demonstrate how partisan predispositions can influence economic assessments,” Langer Research Associates, which produces the index, said in a written analysis.

“It appears that Republicans are especially gloomy about the economy now in part as an expression of their discontent with the way Barack Obama has handled it,” the analysis said. “Democrats, for their part, are taking the opposite tack, expressing higher levels of economic confidence, given their support for the guy at the helm.”

Here’s a look at some Bloomberg stories about the election and the economy:

‘SUPER-GOUGE’ RATES: Television stations in presidential swing states may charge super political action committees and other outside groups what one Democratic consultant calls “super-gouge” advertising rates, Julie Bykowicz writes in the fourth and final installment of Bloomberg’s “Making Millionaires” series, which looks at people and groups who are benefiting from 2012 campaign spending.

HARD TO REACH: About spending about $100 million on tens of thousands of negative television commercials in the past three months, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney and their allies haven’t done much to influence the horse-race standings in the presidential swing states, John McCormick writes.

TAX-POLICY IMPASSE: Congress remains mired in a stalemate over how to extend Bush-era tax cuts that expire at the end of the year, Richard Rubin and Kathleen Hunter write. The Senate voted yesterday for a Democratic plan to extend tax cuts for individual income for up to $200,000 a year and income of married couples up to $250,000, though the Republican-controlled House opposes that plan and wants to extend tax cuts to all income-earners.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: 17.3 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Robert Caplin/Bloomberg

Shoppers with a Hollister Co. shopping bag in New York.

That’s the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index (CCI) for the week ended June 3.

The index, which asks people to rate the national economy, their personal finances and the buying climate, rose for the third straight week, a break from the losing trend of the past several weeks.

The CCI increased to -37.6 from -39.3 in the prior period, on its scale of -100 to +100.

The number is close to the year average of -38.8, but it has climbed 6 points since reaching an almost four-month low in mid-May.

So what might this mean for the election?

Take a look at the CCI in the first week of June 2004, when George W. Bush was president. It stood at -19. How about the first week of June 1996, when Bill Clinton occupied the White House? Then it was -10. And in both cases, the incumbent was re-elected five months later.

But in June 1992, when George H. W. Bush was president, the CCI stood at -39, similar to today’s -37.6. Bush lost his bid for re-election that year.

That being said, keep it in mind that the trajectory of the index can be almost as important as the number itself. The number appears to be rebounding a bit, at least over the past three weeks. It’s been above -40, the level associated with deep economic discontent, for the past two weeks. And it was above -40 for 12 weeks in a row from mid-February to late April.

If the trajectory continues on a positive trend, things look good for Obama’s chances; if the spike is temporary and the index begins to trend downward or stays level, Republican Mitt Romney’s chances may improve.

Just how those numbers play out were likely on the candidates’ minds last night as President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney once again hit the campaign trail, raising money and talking about the economic challenges facing the country. Obama acknowledged that “this is going to be a tough race precisely because the economy’s not where it needs to be yet,” while Romney said Tuesday’s Wisconsin governor-recall vote results may boost his chances.

Bloomberg’s Bill McQuillen takes a closer look at labor’s loss in Wisconsin, and how it may tempt other governors to target public-worker benefits, while Tim Jones and Mark Niquette ask whether Governor Scott Walker’s healing cookout is too late, with wounds that run too deep.

Original post is Magic Number of the Day: -37.6 by Political Capital.

Photograph by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Shoppers in San Francisco.

That’s the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index for people earning more than $100,000, according to data for the week ended April 29. It’s been in the positive range for this high-earning group for six consecutive weeks, according to Langer Research Associates, which produces the index.

The index, which asks respondents to evaluate the national economy, their personal finances and the buying climate on a range from negative 100 to positive 100, was in the negative range for every other income group, including minus 73.5 for people earning less than $15,000. The index was minus 37.6 overall.

Original post is Magic Number of the Day: 7.6 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Job seekers in New York on April 18, 2012.

That’s the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index for the week ended April 15, slightly lower than the minus 32.8 reading for the previous week.

The index — which asks respondents for their views on the economy, personal finances and buying climate — matched its level two weeks ago as its highest since March 2008, when the nation was in a deep recession.

The index for Democrats rose to minus 19.2, its highest level since August 2007. It was minus 29 for independents and minus 34.7 for Republicans, who say that Mitt Romney, their party’s presumptive presidential nominee, will be a better steward of the economy than President Barack Obama.

Original post is Magic Number of the Day: Minus 31.4 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Dennis Brack/Bloomberg

George W. Bush confetti after the Republican National Convention in New York, on September 2, 2004.

Among Democrats, consumer confidence is improving. For Republicans, it’s worsening. Why?

Maybe it has something to do with election-year politics and a presidential campaign that is becoming more focused.

“With partisanship in full force, Democrats may be filtering their assessments through the prism of supporting the incumbent president, Republicans the opposite,” Langer Research Associates said in a written analysis about the weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, which asks Americans to rate the national economy, the buying climate and their personal finances.

The Democratic index was minus 22.4 for the week ended April 8, up from minus 41.8 just five weeks earlier. Over the same period, the Republican measure fell to minus 39.4 from minus 26.8.

This has happened before in the heat of a White House re-election campaign, during which the incumbent’s economic record is defended by allies and denounced by the out-of-power party.

For much of 2004, when Republican President George W. Bush won re-election in a close race over Democratic challenger John Kerry, the Republican index was overwhelmingly higher than the Democratic index. In the week ended July 18, 2004, the Republican index was plus 43 and the Democratic index was minus 47, a 90-point gap.

In 1996, when Democratic President Bill Clinton was re-elected over Republican nominee Bob Dole, the index “was about average among Republicans, but again better than average among Democrats,” Langer Research Associates said.

Original post is Consumer Confidence? It May Depend on Your Politics by Political Capital.

Photograph by Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

Protesters mock Mitt Romney in Los Angeles, on March 27, 2012.

That’s the gap between Democrats and Republicans in the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index for the week ended April 8. The index, which asks people what they think about the national economy, their personal finances and the buying climate, was minus 22.4 among Democrats, minus 39.4 for Republicans and minus 32.8 overall.

The 17-point gap for Democrats was the largest since the partisan differences in the index were first measured in June 1990. The Democratic index has been rising and the Republican index has been falling; as recently as the week ended March 4, the Republican index was 15 points higher than the Democratic index, minus 26.8 to minus 41.8.

Politics may have something to do with it.

“With partisanship in full force, Democrats may be filtering their assessments through the prism of supporting the incumbent president, Republicans the opposite,” Langer Research Associates, which produces the index, said in its analysis.

Original post is Magic Number of the Day: 17 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis

Shoppers in New York City.

That’s the rise in the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index in the past 10 weeks, to minus 31.4 percent in the week ended April 1 from minus 46.4 in the week ended Jan. 22. The index asks people how they feel about the economy, their personal finances and the buying climate.

It’s rare to see such a large jump in the index in such a short period of time. The last time the index rose by 15 points or more in a 10-week span was in late 2006, right after Democrats won control of the House and Senate to share political power with President George W. Bush, who was unpopular at the time. The index was plus 1 for the week ended Nov. 26, 2006, up from minus 15 in the week ended Sept. 17, 2006.

An improving economy would benefit President Barack Obama as he campaigns for re-election. He says his policies have helped the economy recover from a deep recession. “Our economy’s begun to turn a corner, but we’ve still got a long way to go,” Obama said yesterday.

Republicans including presidential front-runner Mitt Romney have said Obama’s programs have disrupted the economy. “He delayed the recovery and he made it anemic,” Romney told newspaper editors at a convention in Washington on April 4.

Original post is Magic Number of the Day: 15 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

A shopper with a 2012 Chevrolet Volt in Peoria, Illinois, on March 28, 2012.

That’s the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index for Democrats in the week ended March 25. It’s the highest level for Democrats since November 2007.

The index, which asks respondents what they think about the national economy, the buying climate and their personal finances, was minus 30.9 for Republicans and minus 35.0 for independents.

The index for Democrats was lower than the index for Republicans in each of the seven previous weeks. The Democratic number usually is lower because Republicans “tend to be better off financially,” Langer Research Associates, which produces the index, said in a written analysis.

As President Barack Obama campaigns for re-election, he’s looking to convince as many Democrats as possible to vote for him as a better alternative than his Republican detractors. Democratic turnout surged in the 2008 primaries and in the general election, though Democrats were less enthusiastic than Republicans to vote in the 2010 midterm elections that Republicans dominated.

Original post is Magic Number of the Day: -30.2 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Scott Eells/Bloomberg

A shopper in New York on March 27, 2012.

That’s the Gallup Economic Confidence Index for the week ended March 25. It’s the highest level for the index since the Princeton, New Jersey-based polling organization began daily tracking of economic confidence in January 2008.

The index, which measures how respondents feel about current economic conditions and whether the economy is improving or worsening, was -18 for the weeks ended March 11, 2012 and Feb. 13, 2011. It was as low as -65 for the week ended Oct. 12, 2008, less than a month before President Barack Obama’s election.

Other surveys point to growing public optimism about the economy. Thirty-four percent of Americans say the economy is improving, according to the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index for the week ended March 18. The next weekly survey will be released tomorrow.

Original post is Magic Number of the Day: -17 by Political Capital.