"When the daisy chain of derivatives teetered in 2008, the Fed pledged over $16 trillion to support it, for otherwise the entire financial system would have collapsed. But, in doing so, the Fed made good both sides of the derivative bets, transmuting the bad money into a sovereign liability. The general public were the losers: they were made to pay ex post facto for the bilateral gains of the bankers. In fact, the Fed had no choice. Those running the banks had long since withdrawn their profits, converting them into ownership of other assets, so the bad money backed the deposits of the retail customers." - @Myrmikan, 2013(𝐓𝐗𝐌𝐂)