"The bailouts, the TARP program, 700 billion dollars handed to Wall Street to clean up a mess Wall Street had made. AIG got bailed out by the Federal Reserve and turned around and paid Goldman Sachs$13 billion at hundred cents on the dollar. The Fed opened the printer. Trillions of dollars created out of thin air. Risk and reward fully decoupled."

Methodology Scott Melker's claim is largely confirmed by available information. The TARP program initially authorized $700 billion to stabilize the financial system, including Wall Street banks. AIG was indeed bailed out by the Federal Reserve, which provided a credit line, and later the Treasury Department also committed TARP funds. There are numerous reports that AIG, after receiving aid, paid Goldman Sachs and other counterparties at full value (100 cents on the dollar) for credit default swaps, which was controversial. The Federal Reserve did "open the printer" through quantitative easing (QE) programs, increasing its balance sheet from less than $1 trillion in 2008 to about $4.5 trillion by 2014, and later to $8.8 trillion. The concept of "risk and reward fully decoupled" is widely discussed in the context of bailouts, with critics arguing that rescuing financial institutions can lead to moral hazard and increased risk-taking, as these institutions believe they will not bear the full consequences of their actions.