I suspect QE to be a mirror extension of austerity. The sly purpose of either of them is to address the ridiculous balance of financial obligations, I guess. Just as the 2008 bailouts, QE is channeling money through "ordinary" participants of the financial market to the real winners. Without QE, the "ordinary" participants would already be massively owned by the winners. This way QE is keeping the impeccably clean image of financial obligations. On the other hand, QE cannot mask the disparity of financial obligations and real world productivity forever. That is where austerity comes in, silently securing real resources (or at least, the relative position) for the winners.

The end game might be very near. One more shock act, just before Greece executes its brave stand perhaps, and the civilization falls apart into (prepared in advance) fiefdoms of current financial overlords.