Get ready to shout hooray, maybe.

That is, assuming a couple of well-regarded economic minds are on the money, the 22-month agony of rising interest rates is just about kaput.

The two men, Irwin Kellner and David Rosenberg, are at odds, though, over how many more rate hikes are left. One, bucking the consensus view, says just one; the other says two.

Mr. Kellner, the chief economist at North Fork Bank and professor of economics at Hofstra University, told me the other day, “Just two more rate increases to go, and that’s it.”

Following 14 straight rate increases since June 2004, the magic number for wrapping up the string is now 16, he says. Mr. Kellner expects the hikes to end with a widely anticipated 25 basis points increase in the fed funds rate on March 28 to 4.75% and a similar rise on May 10 to 5%.

What makes him think the Fed will stop at 5%? For one thing, he views 5% as the upper limit of a neutral monetary policy and the low end of tightening. He also cites the current inverted yield (that’s where short rates are higher than long rates), an event that usually foreshadows a recession.

By the same token, though, Mr. Kellner hasn’t shut his eyes to danger. He allows for a real risk – and he’s by no means alone – that the Fed could possibly “overshoot,” pushing the fed funds rate to more than 5%. The Fed, he believes, could be fooled by temporary factors that seem certain to inflate the current quarter’s economic numbers, namely brisk mall shopping and strong outdoor construction activity as a result of an unusually warm January.

Given the better than expected January showing, he looks for strong first quarter GDP growth of 4.6%, a happening he thinks could worry the Fed. He also points to growing inflationary evidence, taking note of January’s 0.7% jump in the Consumer Price Index, rising airfares, and increasing energy costs that are seeping through to the rest of the economy, including surcharges on fuel deliveries and car and ferry services.

Interestingly, the bond market appears to share Mr. Kellner’s expectation of two more rate boosts. It’s pricing in about an 80% probability that the Fed, following its widely expected rate hike later this month, will raise rates again in May. Likewise, the Wall Street consensus, in line with Mr. Kellner’s thinking, calls for a 5% conclusion to the rate increases.

Not according to Mr. Rosenberg, Merrill Lynch’s North American economist. In contrast, he expects the fed funds rate to peak in March following what he believes will be the final rate boost in the current credit-tightening cycle to 4.75%.

That’s based on his dreary economic outlook, which calls for decelerating GDP growth to 2.5% in the second quarter following a 4.3% rebound in the first quarter. That would follow last year’s fourth quarter rise of 1.6%. He also looks for slowing housing activity both in sales and price appreciation, leading GDP growth to slow to a crawl of just less than 2% in the second half.

Given his scenario, Mr. Rosenberg expects the Fed to begin cutting rates in the second half, with the fed funds rate winding up the year at 4.25%.

Mr. Kellner shares Mr. Rosenberg’s expectations of a rapidly slowing economy, predicting skidding GDP growth of 2% in the second quarter, 1% in the third quarter, and 0.5% in the final quarter.

His reasoning for such a sharp slowdown: The housing bubble will lose air, spearheaded by a dramatic increase in the number of homes on the market, falling housing prices in a number of areas of the country, and rising mortgage rates. The key here, Mr. Kellner says, is that “the consumer can no longer use his home as a piggy bank.”

Accompanying the economic slowdown, he believes, will be a reduction in interest rates. He looks for the fed funds rate to remain at 5% until October or November and then be pared to 4.75% by the end of the year.

On an ominous note, our economist raises the prospect of “a surprise on the downside” – namely, “the housing slowdown could seriously impact the economy.”

So the bottom line from our two economic experts: The anguish from rising rates will soon be history, but then we’ll have to cry ouch because of a sagging economy.