... there cannot be any question of abolishing interest by any institutions, laws, and devices of bank manipulation. He who wants to "abolish" interest will have to induce people to value an apple available in a hundred years no less than a present apple. What can be abolished by laws and decrees is merely the right of the capitalists to receive interest. But such laws would bring about capital consumption and would very soon throw mankind back into the original state of natural poverty. — Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises understood the importance of interest rates. Interest is like a price ratio, and fixing interest rates is therefore akin to price controls. Given that interest is not just any price, but the price of credit and with that the lifeblood of the economy, it is all the more devastating that its fate is in the hands of central planners.