Federal Reserve Banks make a record profit.

[CaptainHaplo]

"...bigger profit was primarily due to increased income from the securities it held last year.
Such income went up as the Fed's holdings of securities mushroomed."

Like any stockholder, they are due the dividend that is paid. On bonds - they are paid the interest on the bond, just as you or I would be. Nothing suprising here, since the amount of holdings they had increased dramatically, the payments they recieved would increase as well. Simple math.

Had this been inrelation to the "toxic assets", there would have been no interest. The assets were toxic because there were no payments being made - no payments mean no interest profit....