That 16 trillion dollars is one of the most bogus numbers trotted around on the internet. The sum that was "in play" at any given time during the TARP program (which the number comes from) was about $500 million. That $500 million was loaned out and repaid back many times in various sums totalling about 21,000 transactions; short-term loans at very low or zero interests to unfreeze the credit markets. Total all the loans and you get some trillions of dollars, total the repayments and you also get some trillions of dollars.
Most of the real arguments about how it was a hand-out objected to the lack of interest, and pointed to the loss of $50 million or so in interest that would have been collected if it were charged at market rates. There's a brief summary of it here: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/12/tarp-4-years-later.asp but its not hard to find more in-depth information. Its also pretty easy to find ridiculous distortions, as the teabaggers have been running lies about it for years, the repugs distorted it for every sound bite they could in the last two elections, and certain elements here have been setting their own hair on fire about it regularly, in the absence of good information.
To me, that baloney is just an excuse to stay angry and uninformed, and to continue to promote the idea that nothing anybody does makes a difference.
I'll stick by what I said in the beginning - a well-informed person votes with his or her wallet, and makes a real difference every day. If you don't like a bank, don't give them your money. If you don't like a corporation, don't give them your money. If you look at the balance sheets or the cash-flow of any corporation or bank, they are almost entirely dependent on people voting for them, giving them money, every single day. If you don't like it, STOP, and tell others to do the same. I'd make a good argument that its the only way to make the kind of difference most people want to see.
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