The Fed just finished selling all of them, and their return on investment isn’t too shabby. The sales of the $19.5 billion portfolio turned a $2.8 billion profit for taxpayers.

“The completion of the sale of the Maiden Lane II portfolio has resulted in significant gains for the public and marks an important milestone in the wind-down of the extraordinary interventions necessitated by the financial crisis,” William Dudley, president of the New York Fed, said in a statement.

The article goes on to mention this wasn’t the really toxic asset pool, and we’ll likely take a bath on that…but reading the comments on that article…I really think less than 1% of the country could explain what the Fed does or how it works.  The RON PAUL idiocy and confidence brigade is in full effect on any Fed story…and none of them even deign to read the stories themselves…they just read the word ‘Fed’ and start ranting.

Fed turns $2.8 billion profit on AIG bonds – Feb. 28, 2012
http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/28/news/economy/fed_maiden_lane_aig/?npt=NP1