Back in November, U.S. Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen described the current low level of inflation as a "mystery." Despite a small pickup in prices, Europe has the same mystery to solve: Economic confidence in the eurozone is at its highest point for a decade, according to the European Commission's measure. But there's no sign of the inflation that you'd normally expect with that kind of economic upsurge. The European Central Bank minutes from December show some in the ECB are similarly baffled what they call a "disconnect" between the real economy and prices.

With quantitative easing having multiplied the amount of fiat money issued by central banks in just a few years, how come it didn't trigger much higher levels of inflation than what we now see, it's fair to wonder? The technical answer is that the money created has ended up full circle — on the books of the central banks.

The more fundamental answer is that QE resulted in a wealth increase for the richest, who consume relatively little of their revenue, while the middle class and the neediest largely failed to reap any benefit. Having not gained from QE, their consumption has not risen, leaving prices pretty much flat.