You are correct that QE is a sinister and stealthy way of accomplishing the same thing here on a much larger and quieter scale.

I still think though there will be some effort to confiscate IRA's, 401Ks, pensions. It will be under the guise of providing a safe return for retirement by investing in  govt. bonds which will appear to have some sort of security backstop by the full faith and credit of the govt. which really means nothing anymore. It's the last really big pot of money they won't be able to keep their sticky fingers off of . 

It's also interesting to note that if 1 TBTF bank went under FDIC would be drained overnight. It is that underfunded and would rely on more govt. assurances and promises to cover other losses if more than 1 big bank failed. There are already too many promises now that can never be fulfilled.

 It will be interesting to see how deposit holders in other EU countries at risk will respond when their banks open.