2/2 - image - sp500 (green line) compared with Fed balance sheet (red line) 2) The money never made it to main street to begin with, the bailout money given to the banks after the GFC largely sat on bank balance sheets and was then used, thanks to the low-interest rate environment, to trade and gamble in the stock market. So yes, we did experience inflation, but not the kind that trickles down to main street, it was instead asset inflation, real-estate, bonds and of course stocks. Until that money began to flow out of the system in the form of 'golden parachutes' for executives, dividends to shareholders and bonuses. That money is now gone from the system, this began to cause creaks and cracks to form, this was evident in the repo markets, whereby the Fed has been forced to yet again, start "not QE." FRED: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2V#0 M2 Money Definition: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-macroeconomics/chapter/measuring-money-currency-m1-and-m2/