When the Federal Reserve finally raises interest rates, the ripple effect will hit everything from business investment to consumer borrowing, but that doesn't make it the wrong move, experts say.
"Short-term interest rates are going to go up, and that's going to affect a lot of things in the credit markets," said Paul Edelstein, director of financial economics for IHS Global Insight. "The Fed is going to make it more expensive to borrow."
Fed Chair Janet Yellen, has taken pains to be cautious, but the central bank last week gave signals that it will move slowly this year toward its first interest-rate increase since December 2008, when the economy was mired in the Great Recession and financial crisis.
One of the first and most notable ripple effects when the Fed raises rates will likely be on stock prices.
"When interest rates do go up, it is normal for that to have an effect on stock and bond markets," said Jeff Frankel, a professor at Harvard University and director of the Program in International Finance and Macroeconomics at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The initial market reaction would likely be just a blip, but higher interest rates could lead to more volatile stock prices.
"Keeping interest rates so low for six years is part of what has sustained the rallies," he said.
Higher interest rates will spread to other loans, including mortgages, and eventually to credit cards as banks pass on higher borrowing costs to customers.
"If you want to borrow to buy a home, it's going to get more expensive," Edelstein said.
At the same time, it will become more lucrative to save, Edelstein said, as rising interest rates usually increase the yields on savings accounts.
For businesses, more expensive loans could take a bite out of investment plans.
"The more they have to spend to borrow money, the less they have to spend on other things," said David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution, "and the less they'll have to spend on big capital expenses like factories."
The effects of raising interest rates may seem largely negative, but it is important to return to normal levels, analysts say.
"It's really, really unusual for interest rates to be at zero for more than six years," Wessel said. "Interest rates were cut to zero when things were really screwed up."
The Fed has said it will only raise rates when the labor market improves and it is absolutely sure the economy can weather the storm.
"No one likes to spoil a party," Frankel said, "but you do it because you think it's necessary to keep the economy on the long term."
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