Consumer Sentiment in U.S. Climbs to Highest Since 2007 By Alex Kowalski - 2012-05-25T14:02:55Z Enlarge image Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index Increased to 79.3 in May Shoppers ride the escalator in a Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) store at the City Creek Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Shoppers ride the escalator in a Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) store at the City Creek Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Photographer: George Frey/Bloomberg Consumer confidence rose in May to the highest level since October 2007 as prices at the gas pump became less of a drag on household budgets. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment climbed to 79.3 from 76.4 the prior month. The gauge was projected to hold at the preliminary ... Continue reading →

John Ramsey became old enough to buy a Carlsberg nine months ago. The 21-year-old college student from east Texas isn’t old enough to serve in Congress. His intellectual role model, U.S. Texas Representative Ron Paul, has been in Congress 22 years -- longer than Ramsey has been alive. Yet, Ramsey is leaving a mark on U.S. politics that may outlast his political mentor and presidential candidate, Paul. The college senior spent $1.3 million of his own money to create a super-political action committee, Liberty for All Super PAC, that backs candidates who endorse what Ramsey calls “freedom philosophy.” The dogma includes policies championed by Paul, such as supporting free-market economics, protecting civil liberties, slashing government spending and opposing most U.S. military action. Ramsey’s super-PAC passed ... Continue reading →

Enlarge image Morgan Stanley’s Gorman Said to Join Facebook Call on IPO Price Facebook shares tumbled 16 percent through yesterday. Facebook shares tumbled 16 percent through yesterday. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Robert Prongay, an attorney at Glancy Binkow & Goldberg, talks about the lawsuit the firm has filed with a California court over Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering. He speaks with Cory Johnson on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West." Bloomberg's Emily Chang also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg) Ryan Cefalu, who lives with his wife and two kids in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, saw in Facebook Inc. (FB)’s much-anticipated initial public offering a chance to buffer his retirement fund. His expectations fizzled along with the stock within the first minutes of trading. “It’s disheartening to know ... Continue reading →

From extra shifts at auto and steel plants in Ohio to office buildings rising in Northern Virginia, the geography of the U.S. economic rebound is providing an edge to President Barack Obama’s re-election. The unemployment rates in a majority of the 2012 battleground states are lower than the national average as those economies improve. Coupled with the growth of adult minority populations in those states, the trends create a higher bar for presumed Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney in his quest to unseat Obama. “There are jobs out there,” said Chris McGiffen, 47, of Zanesville, Ohio, who moved to the state in 2010 from St. Louis to look for work. He found a job as a welder at Columbus Castings, a steel foundry that ... Continue reading →

From extra shifts at auto and steel plants in Ohio to office buildings rising in Northern Virginia, the geography of the U.S. economic rebound is providing an edge to President Barack Obama’s re-election. The unemployment rates in a majority of the 2012 battleground states are lower than the national average as those economies improve. Coupled with the growth of adult minority populations in those states, the trends create a higher bar for presumed Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney in his quest to unseat Obama. “There are jobs out there,” said Chris McGiffen, 47, of Zanesville, Ohio, who moved to the state in 2010 from St. Louis to look for work. He found a job as a welder at Columbus Castings, a steel foundry that ... Continue reading →

President Barack Obama’s campaign has set a target on Mitt Romney’s tenure at the helm of Bain Capital LLC. What’s missing are high profile surrogates from the Democratic Party and the business community who will hit that theme in interviews and appearances on political talk shows. In fact, some Obama backers are undermining a core argument the president is making against the presumed Republican Party nominee as they try to avoid criticizing the investment community. Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker yesterday called the private-equity debate “nauseating to the American public” and likened it to potential Republican attacks tying Obama to his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr., who once urged blacks to sing “God damn American” instead of “God Bless America.” “Enough is enough. ... Continue reading →

Seattle—Nick Hanauer toddled through his early years in a cramped Greenwich Village apartment. His mother waited tables at the Bitter End. His father worked low-level jobs on Wall Street and as an editor at a publishing house. When Nick was 5, his folks left New York to join a family pillow-making business in the Pacific Northwest. They raised their three sons in a three-bedroom house in the suburbs and sent them to public schools. After Nick, the eldest, earned a philosophy degree at the University of Washington, he went to work for his father. In his 30s, he scraped together $45,000 to invest in a small start-up that sought to revolutionize American retail. It was called Amazon.com. (RELATED: Too Hot for TED—Income Inequality) This is ... Continue reading →

Enlarge image Joe Ricketts Kris Connor/Getty Images for Roadside Attractions Joe Ricketts last year in Washington, DC. Joe Ricketts last year in Washington, DC. Photographer: Kris Connor/Getty Images for Roadside Attractions For two years, Joe Ricketts has been building a political operation seeking to curb government spending that could have reached a crescendo in August with an unexpected, multimillion dollar attack on President Barack Obama. The admission by a Ricketts’ spokesman yesterday that one proposed advertising campaign focused on the president’s relationship with a Chicago preacher known for racially charged sermons removed the element of surprise, increased scrutiny of his political activity and put at a negotiating disadvantage one of the Ricketts family’s prized possessions -- the Chicago Cubs. “Not only was this plan merely ... Continue reading →

Nonwhite U.S. Births Become the Majority for First Time By Frank Bass - Thu May 17 04:01:00 GMT 2012 Enlarge image Nonwhite Births Become Majority in Sign of U.S. Transformation The trend is likely to have a far-reaching impact on the country’s political alignment, the nature of its workforce and on its economic future. The trend is likely to have a far-reaching impact on the country’s political alignment, the nature of its workforce and on its economic future. Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images Minority babies outnumbered white newborns in 2011 for the first time in U.S. history, the latest milestone in a demographic shift that’s transforming the nation. The percentage of white newborns fell to 49.6 percent of children younger than a year old from April ... Continue reading →