TALF

Read the gory details here.

I don't really have a problem with any of this. All these TALF profits were made without taking anything away from anybody else. The essence of an economic depression is that it's possible for policymakers to spur actual increases in output via various kinds of easing. But the natural questions to ask are "why not more?" and "why not for more people?" Why the obsession with doing easing through the credit channel? The circumstances called for monetary expansion—more monetary expansion than we got—but there's no good reason not to funnel the money directly to households.