General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Sanders Releases Explosive Bailout List [View all]girl gone mad
(20,634 posts)and overnight loans is a bit of a misnomer in this instance, since the term on these "overnight" loans was extended to 90 days after the crisis, and the average term was well over 30 days. The peak outstanding bank support was well over 2 Trillion.
Don't kid yourself, this was a massive gift to the banks.
If you want a good real world analogy, imagine your alcohol and gambling addicted neighbor going to the bank every few days and asking for a loan to go play the slot machines. Then imagine the bank keeps giving him loans and charging no interest. Maybe he's paying them back, but who knows where he's getting the money because he isn't winning at slots and he isn't investing the money in the community. Is this really a smart move on the part of the bank?