According to shadowstats, the real inflation is around 8%, so it's not as low as they advertise. But also, remember we live in a world where computation ability and data storage ability doubles every two years or so, so there are a lot of countering economic forces out there that can cover up mis-allocations of capital for awhile. The housing bubble in 08, went on and on and on too and I thought it was never going to end, but eventually all those massive allocations of capital did come home to roost.

inflation has stayed very low even as people (and maybe you) have been predicting the opposite made you reconsider your theoretical assumptions?

Think of it like snow falling onto a mountain. Every day, it piles higher and higher. Anybody with common sense can see that eventually something is going to break, and the avalanche will fall. Maybe you have no clue when, maybe its gone on for weeks. In idiot without common sense may think that it can snow on forever and never break, and may laugh at me because I keep saying there is going to be one, and there isn't. He is not being clever, but just displaying is basic ignorance of simple principles and will eventually learn a painful lesson the hard way.