Er, no. 25 years ago we had Wall Street championing computer backed loan securitization, and repackaging of the those instruments into CDO's etc. That led over

Er, no. 25 years ago we had Wall Street championing computer backed loan securitization, and repackaging of the those instruments into CDO's etc. That led over time to the subprime loans - as by creating the means of providing more debt instruments, Wall Street them had to find more borrowers. Which didn't end well - it never does. QE was done to stop the financial system imploding when those loans defaulted. To explain the deflation story especially over the last 4 or 5 years, you need to look at the drop in Oil Prices - which as you point out, is primarily due to fracking and the US going from the #1 oil importer in the world to a small exporter. I wouldn't call the export aspect major statistically, but the change in oil trade terms certainly is.