> A couple trillion dollars was used to buy up securities that are realistically worth $0 in pretty much every timeframe for 100 cents on the dollar, cleaning up bank balance sheets.

I have no idea what you're referring to, but if it's TARP then that's totally false. The government made a profit on the bailout.

The vast majority of the securities which the government bought up had intrinsic values higher than what the fear-driven market was pricing them at.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/bailout-high...