I seem to remember "them" buying bonds out the wazoo not too long ago.
Plunge Protection Team: https://en.wikipedia...nancial_Markets
The Working Group on Financial Markets (also, President's Working Group on Financial Markets, the Working Group, and colloquially the Plunge Protection Team) was created by Executive Order 12631,[1] signed on March 18, 1988, by United States President Ronald Reagan.
In August 2005, Sprott Asset Management released a report that argued that there is little doubt that the PPT intervened to protect the stock market.
"If the money to boost stock prices did not come from the traditional players, it had to have come from somewhere else" and "Why not support the stock market as well? Moreover, several officials have suggested the government should support stock prices."
Phillips infers that the simplest way for the Working Group to intervene in market plunges would be through buying stock market index futures contracts, either in cooperation with major banks or through trading desks at the U.S. Treasury or Federal Reserve.
On October 6, 2008, the working group issued a statement indicating that it was taking multiple actions available to it in order to attempt to stabilize the financial system, although purchase of stock shares was not part of the statement. The government may wind up owning shares in the firms to which it provided loans, as they will receive warrants as collateral for these loans.
