Federal Reserve Emergency Loans: Liquidity for Banks
The U.S. Federal Reserve mounted an unprecedented campaign to head off a depression by providing as much as $1.2 trillion in public money to banks and other companies from August 2007 through April 2010. The emergency loans were intended to help recipients cope with cash shortfalls and keep credit markets from grinding to a halt. Bloomberg News sorted through more than 29,000 pages of previously secret documents and Fed spreadsheets detailing more than 21,000 loans to compile a database showing which companies got the emergency liquidity, and when.