Consumer borrowing unexpectedly surges in March

Another contributing factor might be the "economic stimulus" rebates. Folks may be "borrowing" their rebate money out early expecting to use the government payment to offset that when they pay their statements in May.

Since when is opinion presented as proof? The statement you included by an economist has no data to back it up, yet you offer it as a given. "This represents distressed borrowing. Consumers need cash and they have turned back to their credit cards to fill the void left by lost jobs and weaker incomes," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com." Zandi offers no supporting information and obviously does not know this to be true and neither do the AP and you in reprinting it. Then you compound the problem by reporting, "Economists said consumers were being forced to make greater use of their credit cards during hard economic times..." without identifying the economists or their supporting data. Isn't that the same criticism the Tribune had of the Northwestern professor citing people without direct attribution? Come on, you're better than that. Tell the AP you won't stand for this kind of shoddy reporting.