For the lucky few on Wall Street, the Federal Reserve sure was sweet (Huff-Post)

This year, Wall Street is poised to break

yet another record for employee compensation

and bonuses. Thanks to near-zero percent

interest rates -- also set by the Fed -- firms

are able to continue making easy money

with minimal risk.

Shahien Nasiripour
Huffington Post
12/1/10

NEW YORK -- For the lucky few on Wall Street, the Federal Reserve sure was sweet.

Nine firms -- five of them foreign -- were able to borrow between $5.2 billion and $6.2 billion in U.S. government securities, which effectively act like cash on Wall Street, for four-week intervals while paying one-time fees that amounted to the minuscule rate of 0.0078 percent.

That is not a typo.

On 33 separate transactions, the lucky nine were able to borrow billions as part of a crisis-era Fed program that lent the securities, known as Treasuries, for 28-day chunks to the now-18 firms known as primary dealers that are empowered to trade with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The program, called the Term Securities Lending Facility, ensured that the firms had cash on hand to lend, invest and trade.

The market was freezing up. Effectively free money, courtesy of Uncle Sam, helped it thaw. Huffington Post complete article