While the Fed’s balance sheet has mushroomed from $850 billion in 2008 to $3.3 trillion today as a result of three rounds of quantitative easing, the last of which is not yet done, these holdings bring in considerable amounts of interest. Because the Fed must return all residual earnings to the Treasury, in 2012 the Fed paid Uncle Sam $89 billion! In 2011, it was $77 billion. Long Live QE!