That’s the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index for the week ended May 12. The index, which is based on Americans’ opinions about the economy, the buying climate and their own finances, fell from minus 29.5 in the prior week. It can...
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Photograph by Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
Customers shop at a Macy's Inc. store in New York.
Bloomberg by the Numbers: -30.2
Photograph by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Construction crews work on new homes being built in San Ramon, California, on April 12, 2013.
Building Permits Dwarf Ground-Breaking
Applications to build homes climbed in April to the highest level since June 2008, helping alleviate concern that a slump the same month in construction starts on new houses would mean less support for the economy in the second half...
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Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, talks prior to an interview at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on May 7, 2013.
Boehner: Slow Growth Can’t be ‘New Normal’
“We’ve had four years of slow and anemic job growth — and frankly, it’s unacceptable,” House Speaker John Boehner said today. The Ohio Republican attempted to turn the latest unemployment rate against the White House — 7.5 percent reported for...
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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 David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Workers assemble American Giant sweatshirts inside the SFO Apparel Co. in Brisbane, California, on May 1, 2013.
Productivity Cooling as U.S. Awaits Next Big Thing
If you were only looking at productivity data, you’d assume the U.S. was still in an economic slump. Employee output per hour grew at an average 0.7 percent annual rate over the past 12 quarters, which economists at JPMorgan Chase...
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Photograph by Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke arrives for a family photo of finance ministers and central bank governors following the G20 meeting at the 2013 World Bank/IMF Spring meetings in Washington on April 19, 2013.
Fed on U.S. Growth: Don’t Blame Us
The Federal Reserve made it clear in describing the U.S. economy today that any fault for this year’s sluggish expansion lies outside the central bank. “Fiscal policy is restraining economic growth,” the Federal Open Market Committee said, with a more direct message than...
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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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Photograph by Nati Harnik/AP Photo
Employees load a washer and dryer into customer's car at the loading docks of Nebraska Furniture Mart in Omaha, Neb.
Bloomberg by the Numbers: 2.5%
That’s the annualized rate at which the U.S. economy grew in the first quarter, according to an estimate by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. The figure refers to the rise in the gross domestic product — the value...
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Photograph by Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
Customers try out mattresses in the showroom of an Ikea store in the Brooklyn borough of New York.
Bloomberg by the Numbers: -29.2
That’s the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index in the week ended April 14, the highest since January 2008. The index, which asks U.S. consumers for their views on the economy, buying climate and personal finances, rose 4.8 points from minus 34...
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Photograph by Grant Pritchard
Economy: There’s No Business Like Shoe Business
How’s the economy going? Ask a shoe saleswoman. Worse than flat. Heel-busted. Shoes were off — sales that is — at the end of February by 5.1 percent year over year, according to Census Bureau data. (Who knew the head-counters...
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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.
