And optimistic ‘Mericans tend to borrow and spend, more of that being confirmed in yesterday’s report on consumer credit that showed another monthly gain for outstanding credit card balances after declining steadily for years after the 2008 financial creisis and recession. Jake has details on that in this item at EconomPicData.

Importantly, this is the first major gauge of the mood of the consumer to reverse course in recent months as, apparently, those holiday credit card bills have begun to take a toll.

Recall that a surprising surge in credit card usage during the fourth quarter was credited with driving holiday sales higher and, now that those November and December charges are starting to show up in mailboxes in January, the mood is not quite as festive.

Well, gasoline prices starting to rise again doesn’t help either…

The present situation component nearly reversed last month’s gain, falling more than 8 points to 38.4, while the expectations component also declined, from 77.0 in December to 76.2 in January. One-year inflation expectations rose from 5.3 percent to 5.5 percent, in stark contrast to Fed Chief Ben Bernanke’s claim that inflation is too low.

Apparently, American consumers bought nearly all of their iPads, iPhones, and big screen TVs in November as electronics & appliance stores saw sales plunge 3.9 percent in December, the largest decline amongst six of the 13 categories where sales were lower. Gasoline station sales fell 1.6 percent due to a plunging price at the pump and sales at general merchandise stores fell 0.8 percent.

Motor vehicle sales rose 1.7 percent last month and home improvement stores saw a 1.6 percent increase to lead the advancing categories as food and clothing sales both rose 0.7 percent. On a year-over-year basis, overall sales were up 6.5 percent and, for all of 2011, sales rose 7.7 percent, both fairly impressive increases given the slow economic recovery.

The data for December might be even more impressive since, what U.S. citizen in their right mind wouldn’t borrow a thousand dollars or two to get that big flat screen TV and new sound system at Christmas time if they could do so without incurring any interest charges and making only minimal payments for the next year or two.

While some say this indicates renewed confidence in the U.S. economy – one where 70 percent of all activity is based on consumer spending -  others think this is akin to a drunk “falling of the wagon” after almost three years of sobriety.

Excluding autos, sales rose 0.2 percent after a gain of 0.6 percent in October while sales excluding both autos and gasoline rose 0.2 percent in November after a gain of 0.7 percent.

Gasoline station sales dropped 0.1 percent after declining 0.4 percent, but they are still up 12.9 percent from a year ago due to higher prices at the pump, not higher energy demand.

Auto sales rose 0.7 percent after a surge of 1.0 percent the month prior while the biggest monthly increase in November occurred at electronics & appliance stores with a jump of 2.1 percent jump after surging 3.3 percent in October, a testament to America’s love for such products as Apple’s iPad2.

Seven retail categories saw higher sales while six declined, paced by a drop of 1.2 percent at miscellaneous store retailers and a decline of 0.3 percent at home improvement stores.

Taking up the slack for falling credit card balances are higher student loan balances that, already, are further separating the nation into have and have-nots (a.k.a. debt serfs) while making the whole idea of higher education less appealing when this is one the the things the country needs most to remain competitive with emerging economies in Asia.

Those saying jobs are “plentiful” increased from 3.6 percent to 5.8 percent while those saying  jobs are “hard to get” fell from 46.9 percent to 42.1 percent.

Income expectations also improved, those saying they anticipate an increase in their wages over the next six months rose from 11.1 percent to 14.9 percent and business conditions are also expected to be better early next year, that view shared by 13.6 percent of respondents versus 10.2 percent last month.

Shoppers are apparently too busy shopping at the moment to post pictures and videos to the internet, so, here’s a popular Black Friday video compilation from a year ago.

Last night, a woman at a Los Angeles WalMart reportedly pepper sprayed rivals going for the electronics she had her eyes on and this Washington Post story delves into the question of why we Americans do what we do on the day after Thanksgiving. Here’s reason #1:

1) The crowds make us happy
…
Ordinarily, shoppers are turned off by crowds. But when crowds create a sense of competition — such as when hundreds of shoppers are rushing to collect marked-down goods — they generate a different feeling entirely. Competition creates what’s called hedonic shopping value, or a sense of enjoyment from the mere process of buying goods.

The latest take on the mood of the American consumer from Reuters and the University of Michigan shows that attitudes were virtually unchanged, the sentiment index falling from 64.2 in October to 64.1 in November. One-year inflation expectations were steady at 3.2 percent with the five-year inflation outlook rising one-tenth to 2.7 percent.

Excluding autos, retail sales rose 0.6 percent last month and gains were broad based as 10 of the 13 major categories saw higher sales. Electronics sales surged 3.7 percent after a jump of 3.5 percent the month prior while sales at home improvement stores rose 1.5 percent and sporting goods sales gained 1.1 percent.

Clothing sales fell 0.7 percent and gasoline station sales dropped 0.4 percent as lower energy prices made their way to end consumers, however, given the recent rebound in oil prices, that trend could quickly reverse.