Ugh... The US Federal Gov was mostly paid back money that the US Federal Government loaned, which was a small fraction of the total bailout. My comment is not even about that. The comment is about a non-government entity, the US Federal Reserve. The banks have not "paid back" one cent of the 4 trillion dollars which was showered on them.

The fact that so many people could upvote this is a troubling signal of the misunderstanding and lack of awareness that exists even among educated, intelligent professionals.

The US government is not a business, its typical income is taxes. This policy of printing trillions of dollars to, essentially, give a loan to banks, all the while devaluing USD for every holder, sounds like a new form of taxation.