the.com/interest rate
The price of impatience, charged by the year.
means The percentage a lender charges a borrower (or pays a saver) for the use of money over time, usually expressed per year.
from 'Interest' traces to Latin interest — 'it matters' or 'it is a concern' — from inter- (between) plus esse (to be). In medieval legal and financial Latin, id quod interest meant 'that which matters,' used to describe compensation for a loss or difference suffered by a lender. 'Rate' comes from Latin rata (as in pro rata), meaning a fixed portion or calculated amount. So the phrase literally bundles 'what matters' with 'the calculated share' — a fittingly dry pedigree for something that quietly decides who gets rich while they sleep.
- base concept
- rent you pay for borrowed money
- compounding
- makes debt grow faster than it feels
- central banks
- raise it to cool spending, lower it to spark it
- real vs nominal
- inflation quietly eats the stated number