Quote from tradestrong:
bologna. It is seriously in the best interest of the economy to raise rates.
There are fundamentally a number of reasons why interest rates should be raised right now, and they are all well correlated.
Number 1: Inflation is very high right now. Raising interest rates will help combat this in two ways. First, it will help spurn more foreign investment into the US markets. Historically, foreign money is attracted to higher interest economies. The reasons should be obvious why it would gravitate towards those economies. Now, the US economy has been able to buck that normal trend because of the maturity and stability of the US economy and the dollar. Right now, the dollar is extremely weak though. Top that off with low interest rates, and foreign money has no incentive to invest in American securities. If you think American investment alone is going to pull us out of this hole, you're living in a pipe dream.
Number 2: Raising rates should also help to increase the demand for the USD. This should help strengthen the dollar. Again, it will attract foreign investment and will help drive down inflation. Right now, the benefits of low interest rates are not offsetting the disadvantages. We need to strengthen the dollar and we need to attract more foreign investment. *This* will strengthen the American economy much more efficiently than a stagflation with low interest rates.
A strong dollar will make American equity securities more expensive to foreign investors, while fixed-income securities more attractive, yield-wise. IMO you over-simplified. Thoughts?