Jason Rines (iThinkBig)

What Bernanke Had To Say

My belief he is priming the market for rate increase in August. It's an election year. All of us here know at least some about the impact of government, elections and investment trends leading up to and shortly after election. Right now Main St. controls Washington's destiny and the prices of energy and food are the #1 voter issue. Sheer economics would tell me no rate increase in August and raising rates in 2009. During an election year, I believe FED will move in August. For those believing this will hurt housing recovery, the FED has no impact. Long-term rates are set by banking market forces for fixed mortgages not the FED. Right now banks are no longer continuing subprime business where ARM's are the norm. Banks are going back to save and invest economy and consumers are waiting for housing depreciation to buy based on personal income, not because the long-term rates are 5.5%