Looking at consumer confidence, political independents are in a Christmas holiday mood — if we look back to 2007. Sentiment among those without a party affiliation climbed last week to the highest level since the week ended December 23, 2007,...
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Photograph by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Pedestrians carry shopping bags on Market Street in San Francisco.
Political Independents Finally Lose Recession Blues
Photograph by Spencer Platt / Getty Images
A trader on the floor of The New York Stock Exchange on March 5, 2013. The Dow Jones industrial average rallied to a record high on Tuesday to close for the day at 14,253.77, beating its old 2007 record.
Bloomberg by the Numbers: 65
That’s how many months it took for the Dow Jones Industrial Averageto top its previous closing record. The Dow, a price-weighted average of 30 blue-chip stocks, rose 125.95 points to close yesterday at 14,253.77, rising above the previous closing...
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Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
President Barack Obama delivers remarks about extending tax cuts for middle class on Nov. 28, 2012 in Washington, DC.
Bloomberg by the Numbers: 76
That’s the percent share of global investors who say President Barack Obama and Republican congressional leaders will reach a short-term agreement to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. A Bloomberg Global Poll conducted Nov. 27 also found that just 6 percent...
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Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Residents of the District of Columbia watch a "fashion show" demonstrating proper work and interview attire during U.S. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's 15th annual job fair.
Bernanke, `Read My Paper’ — Offer from Gordon, Dr. Growth-is-Over
Written with Steve Matthews Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said last week that he believes the weak growth and high unemployment that the economy has witnessed since 2008 can be mostly fixed by monetary policy. He told his audience...
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Photograph by Sandy Huffaker/Corbis
Joblessness and the accompanying loss of health benefits drove an additional 3.7 million people into the Medicaid program in 2009, the largest single-year increase since the early days of the government insurance plan, according to an annual survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Debt-Drivers: Baby Boom, Recession
There’s a lot of election-year finger-pointing over blame for the explosion of U.S. debt. It misses some of the biggest culprits: The aging of the Baby Boom generation and sluggish recovery from the deepest recession since the 1930s. The BGOV...
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Photograph by Jin Lee/Bloomberg
The beach in Belmar, New Jersey.
Vacation. It’s the New Black.
Americans have had enough personal austerity and are going on vacation. In a sign of confidence in personal finances, 2,666,000 million people missed work by taking a vacation in April, according to the data from the Current Population Survey conducted by the...
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Photograph by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo
Mitt Romney at a campaign rally held at the closed National Gypsum drywall factory in Lorain, Ohio, on April 19, 2012.
Romney Visits Factory Closed Under Bush, Blames Obama
It seemed like the perfect political setting for Mitt Romney. A shuttered dry-wall factory in Lorain, Ohio — a swing state hit hard by the recession – where four years ago then-candidate Obama promised to turn-around the economy. “It would have...
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Photograph by Sam Hodgson/Bloomberg
Contractors work at the Civita housing development construction site in San Diego, California, on Feb. 28, 2012.
Magic Number of the Day: 88
That’s the share of the non-farm jobs created in the past 32 months that men have won. Since the recession ended in June 2009, non-farm payrolls for men increased by 1,941,000 to 67,289,000 in February. For women, non-farm payrolls increased...
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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.
