A few years ago, the Fed gave banks a ton of money and instructed them to purchase US Treasuries with those funds. At the time, treasuries were paying very low rates, but the money was "free" so they did what they were told. Now, a few years later, interest rates are jacked up and those same treasuries that were bought years ago are going underwater more and more over time, and when the smaller banks have to realize their losses on them due to liquidity crisis, they fail. Then, JP Morgan smells blood in the water and buys the smaller bank for change on the dollar. Are we really supposed to believe that the Fed and largest banks (JP Morgan, Bank of America, and co.) weren't colluding the whole time?