Analysis: Banks Play Shell Game with Taxpayer Dollars

While the Fed provided near-zero interest loans to failing banks during the mortgage crisis with the stipulation that the funds be used to stimulate lending to small and mid-sized businesses, the banks instead used the money to buy US government securities that effectively constituted a loan back to the government at higher and profitable interest rates. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) has been a tireless advocate for consumers and is one of the rare members of Congress seeking to hold the financial industry accountable for practices that exploit the public and ignore their obligations of corporate citizenship.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/04/26-4