In exchange for that piece of paper (promising money later), you have given me money now. The difference in what you have given me and what will be repaid is in

In exchange for that piece of paper (promising money later), you have given me money now. The difference in what you have given me and what will be repaid is interest. It is the price of money and its purchasing power transferred through time, and it is the reward for lending. Now imagine your scenario where you go with your saved money looking for borrowers (people willing to write you that promissory note). But no one is willing to write you that promissory note, because the banking system is willing to lend to them whatever they want with a value of X so low that you find it not worth the risk. In fact the value of X is presently less that the pace of inflation (negative real interest rates). So now all the baby-boomers with their life savings can't earn a penny on it while bankers with printed fiat front run them in the money market. Inflation may be good for those excessively leveraged in debt, but it is equally bad for all those who have saved and are investing their earnings. It perversely rewards the over indebted and punishes the prudent saver. Interest rates ideally should be set by the market. In times of excess capital to invest, rates would be low. In times of capital tightness, rates would rise. In this way rates are a measure of the health and state of the capital and investment markets. Interest rate mechanisms are now so completely corrupted that there is not market mechanism left. Rates are not a measure of the economy any more, they are miss-set centrally and then the entire market distorts around them.