In that sense, they set the "risk-free rate of return" by which other investments are baselined. Not happy with the 2.5% (or whatever) on a Treasury? Well, you might want to invest in a state/municipal bond, or a company's bond offering, mortgage-backed-securities, or stocks. You would only invest in those riskier investments if they promised to pay you a rate higher than the "risk-free" rate of Treasuries.
In that regard, rising Treasury rates increase the market-clearing interest rates on any borrowing which is considered riskier than the US government's likelihood of non-payment, so in short, on all other sorts of borrowing. (On fringes, this may not be the case where statutory limits apply, such as on credit-card default rates. If the risk-free rate rises high enough though, such lending might be curtailed in favor of simply moving down the risk ladder if the returns become artificially compressed.)