There was a conspiracy to de-fang capitalism after the financial crisis.<p>Central banks printed a tsunami of reserves to prop-up the banks, and reduced interest rates to allow debtors to survive. The well-funded banks did not foreclose on those companies who struggled despite zero rates. Companies did not lay off workers, but fixed or reduced wages, under the threat of redundancy. Workers kept their jobs in under-productive industries, but were stressed and frightened about the pressures of competition from foreign labor and technology. Many stopped looking for work and dropped out of the unemployment statistics. There was no Schumpeterian creative destruction.<p>The economy stabilized, but the regime of easy money and depressed wages persisted. Savers bailed-out debtors. Workers bailed out companies, whose high profits provided record returns to capital, not to workers in the form of higher wages. Low oil prices helped to reduce inflation and prevent an inflationary shock. The printed money was corralled by the elites, fuelling huge inflation in assets, and funding stock buybacks, to artificially boost share prices, EPS and the options and bonuses tied to them.<p><i>There is unemployment</i> for those who have dropped out of the workforce.<p><i>There is inflation</i> for assets owned by the elites closest to the trough of printed money (Cantillon Effect), and services that do not face international competition (healthcare, education).