A friend of mine uses this phrase and it is always meant in sarcasm. So it is that I used this phrase in my title. Specifically, after hearing this morning that credit usage SHOT up in March and April should follow suit as well.

The driving factor for this is of course the Bush stimulus payments. Human nature being what it is, I'm sure a large percentage of the population went out early and spent their stimulus monies on credit, safe in the knowledge that they could pay for it when the check comes in. For those who may not receive their payment until June or July, lets hope they remember to actually pay that bill or we could be just as bad a credit crisis as we are in now. The credit card companies, like VISA, Mastercard, AMEX Discover, etc. should do well in either case.

-- Begin Utopian Thought -- 

If the bill collectors were smart they should have launched an advertising initiative promoting paying down your bills. Maybe even a discount or bonus if you pay your bill on time in May June and July? Lots of possibilities here, but would have increased payments and paid for itself I'm sure. If retail can do it, why couldn't bill collectors? This economy could be fixed quite easily by EVERYONE participating in it making an effort.

--End Utopian Thought --

You may be right and the surge may also be a delayed picture of how bad the economy is. When people are in trouble, credit tends to be the bailout method. Which if used properly, is fine.

My thought process is that a lot of people getting this money, have never seen this much money at once, or at least very rarely and the tendancy for people in this situation is to spend it before it comes in. This is actually how tey usually got into trouble anyway, but it is amplified when THEY KNOW the money is coming in.