This means you can, in effect, get inflation protection for free because these adjustable rate securities adjust for inflation.

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It's designed for people who have a solid income, and they just got in over their heads or got into one of these crazy adjustable loans with a 10 percent interest rate that they can't afford.

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Like adjustable mortgages, these instruments, issued and securitized by banks, are reset as rates change.

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Previously facing foreclosure, these delinquent borrowers have just gotten another year on their adjustable rate mortgage.

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"The good news is that these refinancings could help some homeowners avoid expensive resets on adjustable rate mortgages, and in turn prevent some foreclosures, " said Spencer Rascoff, chief operating officer at Zillow.com, a real estate Web site based in Seattle.

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Loans from any of these sources can come in a number of flavors, including fixed interest rate or adjustable interest rate, and with various terms, from 5 years for some adjustable-rate loans up to 40 years for some.

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"What's going on in these four states is, first of all, they tend to have very high levels of adjustable-rate mortgages, " says Doug Duncan, chief economist for the association.

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So as soon as the Fed changes that, all of these other rates, whether it's credit cards, mortgages or other, even car loans if they are adjustable, will also change.

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