Higher loan rates on polo are generally a bad thing. The higher the loan rate the more demand for shorting the currency there is as the market expects the price to drop.
The only high loan rate on polo that is good is BTC, because all of the margin accounts run on using BTC to buy other currencies expecting them to go up, not necessarily for BTC to go down.
Yeah a high lending rate does mean there is high demand for the coin on the lending market for short positions. While this would be a bad thing for a short term speculator or trader, I intend to hold my Bitshares for a long while, so the short term price levels really don't have a serious impact on my position. You're definitely right about the increased short positions being opened, thanks for your input.