Wall Street execs I've talked to this week sounded worried that making *too much* money in the markets - having earnings that were *too good* - would spark criticism that they got bailed out. We'll see. 1/

To be clear, banks have not gotten 2008-style aid from the Fed. But they have been huge beneficiaries of the govt stimulus in ways that has nothing to do with "floating all boats" aid for Main Street 2/

The Fed went on a buying binge, which made it easier for companies to issue bonds. That helps Wall Street a few ways: 3/

Companies have been able to sell bonds to pay back the emergency loans that banks VERY reluctantly and nervously funded back in March/April. And banks get paid a lot of money to execute those bond deals. Plus, newly issued bonds trade a lot so more fees there 4/

So "Fed bails out Wall Street" isn't true but it isn't not true either. The government swallowed a lot of risk that big banks would have choked on and opened up the market for deals 5/

This issue is unrelated to the small-business loan program where banks made a killing in fees ($24bn by one estimate https://www.wsj.com/articles/banks-could-get-24-billion-in-fees-from-ppp-loans-11594134444) but which did genuinely help a lot of regular people 6/

And big banks are still going to take it on the chin if the recession is a deep one. The 4 biggest U.S. lenders set aside more than $32 billion last quarter to cover expected loan defaults, about ~1% of total loans ( much higher in commercial and unsecured consumer loans) 7/

Here, said criticism: https://twitter.com/FinGregg/status/1283775467363934208