[etr-strike]

The TARP money was just a small fraction of the actual bailout. The Federal Reserve also drove the interest rate on your savings account below the rate of inflation (robbing you of your wealth). Artificially suppressing interest rates also propped up asset prices -- assets such as houses which all the banks own. TARP was the tip of the iceberg.

[tootie]

That's like blaming firemen for making my house wet when it was on fire. The Fed likely prevented a deflationary spiral with it's relentless QE and never suffered the ill effects of high inflation that the anti-Fed faction insisted would happen.

[etr-strike]

House prices needed to fall. Bad debt needed to be written off. Investors making risky loans needed to lose. None of these things happened, and look where we are. I vehemently disagree with everything you said in your post.