>> ..."none of the other QE rounds were inflationary."
Earlier QE rounds (and this "not QE" round too) are definitely inflationary, but that inflation is not evenly distributed through the economy.
QE inflates prices of financial assets and related stuff. The further you get from financial assets, and the correspondingly closer you get to the real economy, the less inflation there is. Eg. equities get inflated a ton, housing prices less, the price of a hamburger not at all. The mechanism for this non-flat inflation distribution is straightforwardly derive-able just from supply-and-demand; they increase the supply of capital, but only by bidding up the prices of financial assets, while demand for those assets is approximately constant.
That said, you're right that Zerohedge ranges from "mostly-uninformed" to "intentionally writing nonsensical clickbait lies." On the other hand, it is broadly speaking not any wronger than e.g. what you see on TV or read in major newspapers.
Shifting the definition of inflation this way is misleading and confusing for everyone involved - a better analogy may be that QE is equivalent to price controls on fixed income assets.
The effects of QE become much more clear - since the price of a bond is now fixed above its market clearing price (alternately, rates are artificially pegged low), this actually results in a shortfall of supplied liquidity and a situation that sharply favors strong borrowers.
Earlier QE rounds (and this "not QE" round too) are definitely inflationary, but that inflation is not evenly distributed through the economy.
QE inflates prices of financial assets and related stuff. The further you get from financial assets, and the correspondingly closer you get to the real economy, the less inflation there is. Eg. equities get inflated a ton, housing prices less, the price of a hamburger not at all. The mechanism for this non-flat inflation distribution is straightforwardly derive-able just from supply-and-demand; they increase the supply of capital, but only by bidding up the prices of financial assets, while demand for those assets is approximately constant.
That said, you're right that Zerohedge ranges from "mostly-uninformed" to "intentionally writing nonsensical clickbait lies." On the other hand, it is broadly speaking not any wronger than e.g. what you see on TV or read in major newspapers.