Because of the way it was introduced (in the financial system), there was inflation, it created an asset bubble. Asset managers, hedge fund managers, VC investo

Because of the way it was introduced (in the financial system), there was inflation, it created an asset bubble. Asset managers, hedge fund managers, VC investors got rich, and the cost base of this population (prime real estate, restaurants in city centres, tuition fees) inflated too. That's not captured in CPI indices. Part of it was also neutralised through massive liquidity requirements imposed on banks, and the multiplier effect of banks was also killed with capital ratios / forcing banks to deleverage. But that's done now and the said requirements aren't increasing anymore. What changed with the covid money printing is that it was distributed directly in people's pockets. Also its scale and pace dwarfed the previous 10 years of QE. I have no good explanation for Powell to have kept printing money like there was no tomorrow after Feb 2021, after the first >7% inflation prints. I suspect he must have made a deal with Biden to let the inflation go (helped Biden's policies) in exchange for renewing his mandate. The ECB is run by a lawyer who probably had to look up on wikipedia the definition of inflation.