It says a mouthful when banks start to call for higher interest rates. The view of managements at financial companies may be coming around to the point where they believe inflation is a bigger problem than rates are.

According to Reuters, "The chief executive of Europe's biggest lender on Tuesday called on central bankers to raise interest rates in order to combat inflation." The head man at HSBC (NYSE:HBC) fears that there is no overall plan in the financial community to keep rising prices down.

The viewpoint about inflation is probably right, but that does not mean that governments will begin to up rates. In places like the US, where people are still defaulting on mortgages at record rates, and auto loans and credit card payments are under pressure, upping interest rates would be hard to swallow.

There is also the matter that increasing banking rates may do nothing to halt the spike in food and gas prices. These are being set, to a large extent, by demand outside the US, especially in developing nations. Messing with the cost of lending is not likely to fix that.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and the author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 letter.