1.   So savings rates stay high, and consumption, including the consumption of imported goods, stays low.

2.   An important part of the explanation, as he noted, is that while the Fed has reduced short-term rates, long-term rates have stayed stubbornly high.

3.   A report Monday on manufacturing output probably will show factories continued to churn out goods in November and the plant-use rate probably stayed below inflationary levels.

4.   According to Johnston, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island are seeing minimal change in their caseloads because their unemployment rates have stayed fairly flat.

5.   Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve have cut front-end interest rates to a nub but long-term rates have stayed stubbornly high, discouraging business investment.

6.   Bundesbank council member Klaus-Dieter Kuehbacher, meanwhile, said German rates will stay where they are in the foreseeable future.

7.   Comments by a host of Bundesbank officials have suggested rates will stay on hold for the time being.

8.   For one thing, even as interest rates ease, car-loan rates stay stubbornly high not to mention car prices.

9.   For that reason, many analysts expect rates to stay at or near record lows at least until the middle of next year.

10.   For the moment, though, investors are counting on the Fed to leave interest rates alone, allowing borrowing rates to stay at current lows.