Bloomberg reported that the Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret.  According to the Bloomberg report, the depth of troubles for the banks was so extensive, they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day.
 
According to the report, bankers took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue.

The Bloomberg report further indicates that while Fed officials say that almost all of the loans were repaid and there have been no losses, details suggest taxpayers paid a price beyond dollars as the secret funding helped preserve a broken status quo and enabled the biggest banks to grow even bigger.