Marketwatch details: Inflationary pressures are fading, just as Federal Reserve officials expected. But don’t think that the decline in the inflation rate will automatically lead to further quantitative easing by the Fed. The consumer price index was flat in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. And the CPI is expected to drop by at least 0.2% in May on account of the big drop in gasoline prices.

Remember when we thought the U.S. was going to export our way back to prosperity riding European and emerging market aggregate demand (that wasn't a crazy statement even a year ago... promise)? BusinessWeek details the reality:

SF Gate details: Consumer borrowing in the U.S. surged in March by the most in more than a decade on growing demand for educational financing and autos. Credit rose by $21.4 billion, the biggest gain since November 2001, to $2.54 trillion, Federal Reserve figures showed today in Washington. The advance was paced by a $16.2 billion jump in non-revolving debt, including student and car loans.

The NY Times details: The nation’s employers added 115,000 positions on net, after adding 154,000 in March. April’s job growth was less than what economists had been predicting. The unemployment rate ticked down to 8.1 percent in April, from 8.2 percent, but that was because workers dropped out of the labor force.