Borrowing shoots up in NovemberWASHINGTON — Consumers increased their borrowing in November at the fastest pace in three months.Total borrowing in November climbed $24.5 billion, compared to $16.2 billion in October, the Federal Reserve reported Monday. The increase pushed total debt to a fresh record of $3.75 trillion.The acceleration reflected a big jump in the category that covers credit card debt, which rose $11 billion, compared to a much smaller $2.4 billion increase in October. It was the largest monthly advance since March and was a good sign at the start of holiday shopping.Growth in the category that covers auto loans and student loans slowed a bit in November, showing a rise of $13.5 billion after a $13.8 billion increase in October.Patterns in consumer credit are closely watched by economists for clues they can provide about consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

Verizon considers its Yahoo optionsSAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo will adopt a new corporate identity and slash the size of its board if the proposed $4.8 billion sale of its digital services to Verizon Communications goes through.The company plans to change its name to Altaba Inc. after it turns over its e-mail, websites, mobile apps and advertising tools to Verizon. The new name is meant to reflect Yahoo's transformation into a holding company for investments in China's e-commerce leader, Alibaba Group, and Yahoo Japan that are worth about more than $40 billion combined.Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, co-founder David Filo and four other directors on the company's 11-member board will resign after the planned sale to Verizon closes. Verizon is expected to retain Yahoo's brand under its ownership.But the Verizon deal has been jeopardized by Yahoo's recent discovery of two computer hacking attacks that stole personal information from more than 1 billion user accounts during two different intrusions that occurred in 2013 and 2014.Verizon is reassessing whether it should renegotiate the sales price or perhaps cancel the deal.

VW executive arrested in scandalDETROIT — The Volkswagen executive who once was in charge of complying with U.S. emissions regulations was arrested during the weekend in Florida and accused of deceiving federal regulators about the use of software that cheated on emissions tests.Oliver Schmidt, who was general manager of the engineering and environmental office for VW of America, was charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, to commit wire fraud and to violate the Clean Air Act.Schmidt, 48, a resident of Germany, is the second VW employee to be arrested as part of an ongoing federal investigation into VW, which has admitted that it programmed diesel-powered vehicles to turn pollution controls on during tests and to turn them off in real-world driving. The scandal has cost VW sales and has tarnished its brand worldwide.