The Fed PAYS banks interest for their cash holdings for crying out load! I say cut out the middle man and let me go directly to the Fed for money. The hell with it. I can wait while they print it off, no problem.
TARP accounts for most of the current advantages for big banks. Remember ‘investment houses’ were magically considered ‘banks’ to help bail them out too. Any losses big banks had to absorb were allowed to be deducted from past tax years to get refunds, any bad paper was sold to the taxpayers, free money from the Fed to banks and any bank deposits on the Fed’s books gets interest and of course there is no such things as prosecuting a banker for wrong doing, the list is endless but Congress approves of and allows all these Fed actions.