Consumer Loans Insulated From Fed Move Even as Mortgages Climb

Interest rates on many U.S. consumer loans probably won’t rise for a year or more even as the Federal Reserve moves closer to phasing out its stimulus spending.

Consumers may see “almost no effect” on the costs of credit cards and auto loans because those rates are linked to the target federal funds rate, which the central bank plans to keep near zero until 2015, according to Barry Bosworth, an economist at the Brookings Institution.