Dr. Stephen Kinsella:

This is an open research question. There has been a huge amount of research but the picture is too mixed. Many people say QE disproportionately benefits the 1%, but many say the real beneficiaries of QE are pension funds. That is why I use pension funds in my example. In the case of the US in particular, because most people’s pensions are invested in the stock markets, via something called the 401(k), by increasing returns to assets in those markets, one helps to shore up the pensions of individuals by helping the entire pension structure. It really depends on which part of the story one wants to examine. The elephant is too big to examine via one simple, nice story.