US Fed earned record 45 billion dollars in 2009 [View All]

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(AFP) –

WASHINGTON — The US Federal Reserve turned a record profit of 45 billion dollars last year even as it plowed money into teetering banks to prevent a financial collapse, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The country's central bank played a pivotal role in propping up the US economy in the midst of the sharpest recession since the Great Depression, spending billions of dollars on a highly controversial bailout of financial institutions.

The Fed's unconventional moves led to a windfall for the government, the Post reported on its website, citing its calculations of figures it compiled from public documents.

It said the Fed will return 45 billion dollars to the US Treasury for 2009, the highest earnings in the 96-year history of the central bank. The largest previous refund was 34.6 billion dollars, in 2007.

The daily said the profits -- earned in large part from the Fed's aggressive bond-buying as it aimed to push down interest rates and stimulate growth -- were far higher than the expected profits of Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan combined.


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