As I understand it, the government was basically offering the banks money, albeit on perhaps not the best terms. Banks could pay it back if they could raise the

As I understand it, the government was basically offering the banks money, albeit on perhaps not the best terms. Banks could pay it back if they could raise the money elsewhere on better terms. Every bank had to accept the offer because not taking it risked disadvantaging them with respect to the other banks. The situation is similar to the stimulus package where the government gave each taxpayer a check. I'll bet that many fiscal conservatives took the money, even though they were against it in principle, because not to take it would make them poorer with respect to those who did take the money. When government inflates the money supply, it's really transferring some wealth from those with the old money to those with the new money. This "forces" people to compete to receive the new money.