Anyone, who watches the Financial News, hears all sorts of stuff about what is basically our central bank, the Federal Reserve, to which pundits are forever discussing when interest rates will normalize, that is to say when will the FED raise their benchmark interest rate to a level that America has been more accustomed to and thereby closer to 5%, as opposed to the current rate of just 0.50%. The fact of the matter is, there really isn't a normal interest rate to adjust to, there might be historic rates that have been taken to be normal or desired and so forth, but interest rates are dependent on distinct factors that essentially set the rate.
The factors that are most pertinent to interest rates are inflation, the economy, and the debt of the subject nation to which each of these factors makes common sense. In general, interest rates need to be in the vicinity of the inflation rate, because money is a source of value, and if there is inflation beyond a very nominal rate of 1% or so, than those saving and/or loaning money will demand that they be compensated for their money becoming more debased, and hence interest rates will rise. In any economy, funds are needed to expand and to invest in businesses, whether that be directly in infrastructure, training, expansion, R&D, or whatever, companies are going to need access to capital. In situations in which the economy is stagnating, there is thereby less demand for capital, and the less the demand is for capital, the cheaper the interest rate that is going to be charged, because of that very lack of demand. In regards to the debt of nations, and to a lesser extent the debt of corporations, it is understood implicitly that nations fall or rise on their ability to service their debt. At this point in history, nations have never been more indebted than they are today, and so too many major corporations have added on debt at unprecedented levels, to which, in order for the financial system to sustain itself as both viable as well as reliable, this debt has to be paid back or at a minimum payments must be made on a timely and consistent basis. The very act of paying back debt, means that money is being returned to financial institutions, so that loan money properly serviced, is in actuality deflationary because that money is effectively being taken out of circulation which contributes to interest rates being low.
The bottom line, is ready capital, that is money in cash instruments of all sorts, is in plentiful supply, and that supply is so great, that bank institutions, are uninterested in further deposits of this sort, so that they pay little or nothing for them, and that is why the interest paid on these deposits are anemic. The thought that all of a sudden, because the FED may raise interest rates that therefore bond and savings account yields will raise, won't happen, becausethe fact is that there is already too much money, sitting quiescently, with nowhere for those banking institutions to invest the money prudently. This means, that banks will not and cannot pay appreciably higher interest rates on deposits because they already have too much of the stuff to begin with, in addition to the fact that banks can't charge more money on the loans that they now make, because the nations and corporations servicing these loans, often don't have the real capacity to pay more, and if pushed to brink, they will default, collapsing this entire house of cards.