>You only have to look at the US and Euro economies post 2008 to see the real world benefits of QE. Europeans went down the austerity route and are stuck with c

>You only have to look at the US and Euro economies post 2008 to see the real world benefits of QE. Europeans went down the austerity route and are stuck with consistently underperforming economy and the threat of deflation. I don't think it was a comparison between austerity and QE that was on display. If anything, it's more a comparison between a Keynesian approach and austerity (even given the relatively anemic Keynesian implementation on which we settled). But, even that is not a fully valid comparison. More to the point, austerity just seemed an insanely bad choice, and I am not sure that it is illustrative of QE being a good choice. QE was more a boon to the stock market than anything. Likewise (and ironically), the record profits that companies are realizing is due to automation and increased productivity--two things that are largely responsible for the stubborn unemployment that has actually dogged a broader recovery. To my mind, the jury is still out on QE and, for that matter, on the sustainability of this "recovery" in the long run.