$360 Billion, just in the U.S.
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/encore/2013/12/06/feds-qe-policy-cost-u-s-savers-360-billion/
It’s more than that. Keep in mind that when asset prices fall because of profligacy, the prudent should use their cash to snap up those assets. That didn’t happen. So the wealth transfer that would occur naturally from the profligate to the thrifty/prudent didn’t occur.
Per usual, government stepped in and rewarded profligacy. You see, government is profligate and cannot tolerate thrift. Thrift must be punished. Mothers were driven out of homes by a policy that discouraged the non-economic activities of motherhood and rewarded working moms. Now that it’s worked, they pull a switcheroo and make work harder.
Government is the problem.