A month ago we pointed out that with April US consumer savings plunging to levels not seen since Lehman [6], the only place where the tapped out consumer could find some purchasing power is by maxing out their credit cards. This is precisely what happened: moments ago the Fed released its April consumer credit report and it was a doozy: expected to print at $15.00 billion, down from a pre-revision $17.5 billion, the April total instead exploded to a whopping $26.85 billion. This was the fifth biggest surge in history, and was only surpassed by the 2010 "cash for clunkers" record, as well as previous one time outliers in 1998, 2001, and 2006.
[7]
Also of note: after revolving credit had for months done nothing at all, rising by a tiny $12 billion in the trailing 12 months at the end of March 2014, in April it soared by a near record $8.8 billion: this was the single highest monthly revolving credit increase since November 2007.
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Spot the month in which the US consumer finally screamed uncle and started not only charging everything but revolving it, i.e. not making the full payment at the end of the month:
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And finally, confirming that the student and car loan bubble will continue until they pop is that non-revolving credit also surged, rising by $18 billion, the single highest monthly increase since February 2013! At least we know where all that cash for car purchases in April and May came from.
In short, the US consumer is back and as broke, and charging everything, as in the good old days.