ABSTRACT
Occasionally the notion finds expression that one out of the many interest rates should be considered as the base of the rate structure, as therate of interest which a theory of interest should explain above all others. As the theories of the structure of rates say nothing about the absolute level of the rates, it seems indeed necessary, if the structure is to be given a peg, to single out one of them as the "basic rate" and to determine its level, whereupon the others can be grouped around it in accordance with, say, the "expectation theory". The question of the "basic rate" of the interest structure is, according to some authors, identical with the other question, which of the many existing interest rates is being explained by the theories that assume only a single rate of interest.
