Bank question

The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was designed to prevent bank failures during the mortgage crisis of late 2008. The money was used to purchase toxic assets, mostly underperforming mortgages. The experts say this saved the financial industry from collapse and I do not have the knowledge to challenge that. Since TARP was instituted the banks have repaid most of the money. They did this when Quantitative Easy came about. Under this program the government offered money to the banks at very low rates and the banks used the money to purchase government bonds that paid 3% thus making substantial profits. The government used the money to finance the deficit spending thus driving our debt to 15 trillion. The government then complained that the banks did not loan out the money to consumers but the government could have easily forced the banks to do this by charging a penalty on any money the banks did not loan but instead they paid interest on the money.
The government needed that money to finance itself and did so at the expense of consumer loans. This is the classic example of government competing with the private sector. When the president complains about the banks not making consumer loans he knows full well why they are not. They can earn 3% risk free instead of making high risk consumer loans

Here is one example and there are many more showing how the banks used the QE money.
During one three-month period in 2009, Bank of America borrowed more than $48 billion at rates ranging from 0.25 to 0.5 percent. Meanwhile, the largest U.S. lender tripled its holdings of Treasuries and other taxpayer-backed debt to about $15 billion -- securities that yielded 3.5 percent.
I am quite sure that the people protesting throughout the country have very little understanding of these banking maneuvers but they know in their hearts that something is not right or as Shakespeare would say, they smell a rat.