World events give Fed more reasons to maintain low rates

Investors have been wondering when Ben Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, and his colleagues at the central bank will start to raise interest rates, but fiscal woes across Europe have blunted much of the speculation. Concern about the sovereign-debt crisis has pushed the dollar up and stocks down, boosted the cost of risky debt in the U.S. and caused interest rates for short-term interbank loans to increase. The result is that the Fed likely will not increase rates soon. "I don't think economic conditions yet call for it," said Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

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