Depends on your definition of working. If not allowing markets to clear is the definition, then yeah, it's working....so far. Markets have a nasty habit of reverting to the mean though, and in doing so tend to overshoot. 2008 was one example, in fact it got the whole QE thing rolling, although it dates back further than that, since Greenspan and the 87 crash I'd say.

That (some) people are buying luxury goods and real estate doesn't surprise me. It's the same logic as buying gold. Don't trust the currency or the market? Buy "things" that keep their value. Gold, and real estate are never going to zero.

How much is left for productive investment though? I don't see much of that going on, and with employment worldwide being what it is I don't expect too much in the future. Just dragging along the bottom is how I see it, and that could run for years. Meanwhile, the Fed's balance sheet balloons and the mountain of derivative grows ever higher.

Get some popcorn and sit back, I guess. Should be quite the show when it all blows up.

ebear