THE European Central Bank’s surprise cut to its interest rate last Thursday is just the latest evidence that the lengthy era of ultra-loose monetary policies is still firmly in place. Since the start of the crisis in 2007, the four central banks of the United States, the United Kingdom, the euro zone, and Japan have injected $4.7 trillion of liquidity into their economies, pushing interest rates to very low levels.  The consensus is that these actions have raised GDP by between 1% and 3% and prevented a catastrophic failure in the global financial system.  But who have they benefited and is the US economy rebounding or does it just look like it, a superficial bandaide applied to help the markets and big financial institutions?  Unconventional monetary policy: Quantitative easing.