More like adding fat and never burn it. Zero interest means everything stays around, no pressure to produce since there is no expectation of ROI, and then when you suddenly add that pressure a lot of stuff collapses under their own weight since they don't have anything to keep it up.
For individuals in the middle class and lower, high interest rates (and the associated inflation) directly lower the quality of life by eroding their purchasing power.
This confuses me. Rates were raised to reduce inflation. How should inflation have been reduced, if not (at least in part) by raising rates?
Raising rates didn't lower housing prices, it just empowered cash buyers to become landlords.
I have not observed this statement to be true, both in my personal experience and that of those around me.