Ledger

Cooper: "The bailout has cost U. S. taxpayers and the Federal Reserve over 2 trillion (out of a theoretical maximum of over 23 trillion in grants, capital injections, loans, and guarantees comprising all the programs devised to deal with the crisis)."

The US taxpayers and the Federal Reserve are on opposite sides of the ledger. The money that the US government borrowed is a liability on the books of the taxpayer but counts as an asset on the books of the private lenders who own the Federal Reserve.

The TARP and other spending are loans that create revenue streams. These streams transfer interest payments from citizens to those who purchased Treasuries auctioned by the Fed. Many of the purchasers of these bonds and notes are among the owners of the banking consortium known as the Federal Reserve. It is a lucrative business for the Fed to broker loans between the US and private lenders, because the community of private lenders holds all the shares in the Fed, and these shareholders are in business partnerships with hedge funds and foreign central banks and other large buyers of US Treasuries.

If these trillions actually were liabilities for the Fed, they would have never been loaned into existence. They were loaned into existence because they create income for lenders and add to the debt service of taxpayers.