Mortgage backed securities are the epitome of a free-market innovation. The ability to pool mortgages and sell them in chunks essentially allows small investors

Mortgage backed securities are the epitome of a free-market innovation. The ability to pool mortgages and sell them in chunks essentially allows small investors (say, me, although I did not ever buy a MBS share) to make home loans. That makes home loans easier to come by, which makes homes easier to come by, and it's all delivered by the innovation of the free market. The bailouts, on the other hand, were quite obviously not a free-market device. Finally the federal reserve doesn't "give the banking elite a monopoly on money". Although, I honestly don't even know what that means. The federal reserve is supposed to control monetary policy to prevent inflation (good for normal people) and minimize unemployment (good for normal people). They do that by controlling interest rates and "reserve" rules. In other words, they do that by bossing around banks, and manipulating them into making more or fewer loans. That is also not a "free market" system, but there's good reason to suspect it's better than a private money alternative.