“Shadow” or hidden bailouts were also pursued through the Federal Home Loan Bank system, stepping up Fannie and Freddie purchases, and unconventional expansion of the Fed balance sheet. In effect, the government acted to directly or indirectly provide a price floor for selected investors for all manner of financial assets, no matter how dubious or damaged. In a pinch, the central banks were brought in to do much the same thing under the euphemism of “quantitative easing.”

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis …, loc. 944