Fed leaves short-term rate where it is

If you took out a home equity line of credit before 2004, you undoubtedly noticed that the Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate at 17 of its meetings in a row, between June 2004 and June 2006. For the fifth time, though, the Fed has left the rate at 5.25%, leading some Wall Street types to predict that the rate will hold steady for the rest of 2007. CNN Money has the low down: the news sent stocks way up; energy prices have come down, so inflation isn’t as much of a worry as it was last year; and “the housing market is stabilizing.”