There is inflation because of the increase in money supply, but it is not in consumer goods - it is in financial assets
https://www.macrotrends.net/2488/sp500-10-year-daily-chart
Money is created by the central banks but it doesn't instantly appear in people's pockets as cash. That would be required to create instant consumer inflation but the path is much more winding than that.
The money goes into the financial system primarily via banks and bond purchases. CBs buying up debt then gets translated into share buybacks, share buybacks push up stock prices, higher stock prices make the middle class feel more wealthy and so they spend more on middle class things like houses, pushing up house prices, higher house prices get translated into more income going to builders and builders buy things at the store. Traditional measures of inflation like bread or chocolate bar prices are at the end of a very, very long pipeline of money.
It makes for long, but delightfully rewarding reading. Ray Dalio's thinking on the subject is also worth checking out
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/world-has-gone-mad-system-bro...
And you can get his free book on debt cycles here:
As far as I can tell its essentially just a useless hobby unless you have significant savings. The only people I know that are into stocks are also into things like horse racing etc, and they make/lose about as much from it.
At least in my country the stock market is basically you're retirement fund unless you're one of the few people with a Government pension.
Most companies here offer a matching program to invest for your retirement. This is dumped into the stock market for general growth, with the idea that it's there when you retire.
https://www.politifact.com/california/statements/2018/sep/18...
I would add that there is so much total stock wealth, even though the top 10% own 84% of said wealth, the remaining amount is very very large.
I just can't imagine many people following the financial market with any interest.
You don't have to actively follow the stock market to be an owner of stocks. Buying and holding index funds or mutual funds in general is a great way to build wealth with little effort. Many households in the middle class are stock owners through this method. Most large employers offer retirement plans that include this.
401(k) investments, on the other hand, are available and pushed heavily onto nearly everybody with a white-collar job. And 401(k) investments are stocks. So a huge percentage of people hold stocks, or at least funds which contain stocks.
It's often mentioned that one of the biggest investors in the US (and I assume the world) is CalPERS, which manages pensions for California state employees. You may not be particularly in tune with the stock market just because you have a state pension, but indirectly it matters to you.