Why would that be a mystery? QE simply reduced the interest rates on treasuries by introducing artificial demand for existing treasuries from newly printed cash

Why would that be a mystery? QE simply reduced the interest rates on treasuries by introducing artificial demand for existing treasuries from newly printed cash. That's obviously not going to result in increased spending on cabbages, jeans and PS2s. The total level of spending remained static. It's going to mean people who were getting 3% on their bonds and are now getting 0% will go looking for 3% in whatever other financial assets they can find - San Francisco property, shares, etc. > inflation happened but it was all concentrated into financial assets, real estate ... because demand remained static while supply (of yield bearing invesment assets) was restricted. That was basically the whole point of QA. It bailed out the banks without needing to give them taxpayer cash by bumping up asset values until their loanbooks started to look healthy again.