Because interest rates are so low, bankers do not lend long term to borrowers on the street. They lend to the rich and hedge funds who buy up the real estate with cash. QE allows the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. The banker cabal must feed itself first, because there are dangerous derivatives. Otherwise, the banking system could unwind, throwing us into a massive depression. As it is, the depression is contained. It is a depression, that is the cycle is depression, but it is contained as the banks are made safe. It screws borrowers and savers, however. The scam comes when the rich buy millions of houses cash, almost as many as are purchased by mortgages, and that drives the price of houses artificially higher. QE3 is the effort to get the bad mortgages of the banks off the books of the banks by artificially raising the prices of housing. The QE3 money doesn't go to house lending, but the banks feel stronger and then lend to the wealthy in order fo