Federal Reserve: How Does It Really Operate? Watch Out For Bernie

I'm a college graduate(only 25% of us in America) ,with a masters(even smaller percentage), and still can't figure out how much money the Federal Reserve has(with some research have found out, I think).I have recently read and reported on many economic books but still can't grasp where all the money($3.3 trillion in short term loans for emergency funds for banks and corporations starting in 2007..dwarfing the TARP program by the Treasury Dept.)comes from(selling Treasury securities,again I think).Does the Federal Reserve have a lot of money from member banks(reserve balance of 3-10% of member deposits),fees charged for processing and clearing checks and the selling of  Treasury securities? As the U.S government's bank, do they charge the government fees for processing their transactions and managing their numerous accounts.Bernie Sanders,Senator from Vermont,is angry at the Federal Reserve for lending money to U.S. and foreign banks at the discount rate(close to zero)during the great recession of 2008 without any consultation or disclosure.Sanders accuses the banks of not lending to businesses(purpose of loans) to stimulate the economy but used the money to make a safe profit by buying Treasury securities.The end result is the continuation of the recession for many citizens who remain unemployed.The Fed was forced to disclose who it lent the money to by the courts. It had refused to give the information to Congress since 2008(wanted to remain independent from political over site).The information has recently come out and is listed on the Fed's website.Go see the 21,000 transactions.According to the Fed,no credit losses were suffered at the end of this process.

According to my brief research, the Federal Reserve supports itself by generating income from interest earned from(1) government securities that it acquirers through open market operations(2) foreign currency investments and (3)bank/depository institution loans that it makes using the discount rate.Any money left over after paying it's expenses is sent to the U.S. Treasury.One can find income and expenses on the Board of Governors Annual Report on it's website.

The Federal Reserve also "prints money"that means it will hold an auction to buy assets like bonds or mortgage backed securities from banks.Then they will issue a credit to the bank's account,creating new money with the hope that the bank will lend the money to businesses and consumers.All this is foreign to someone like me and most Americans don't understand the financial service world.What about our national debt? How does this play a part?As of September,2010,the "Total Public Debt Outstanding" was $13.56 trillion.The U.S. has been in debt since it's inception.The Civil War,WW1,WW2,inflation from 1950-80,War On Terror 2001-2010 and the great recession of 2008 greatly increased our deficit over the history of the U.S.It was 256.8 billion when I was born with a population of 150 million.The population has doubled and the debit increased by a factor of 54.2.Foreigners hold 27.9% of our debt while the Fed holds 49.37%.Pensions(2.5%),mutual funds(4.74%),savings bonds(2.055).Do we owe the fed or ourselves money if the Fed holds about half the debt(U.S Treasury Securities)?I'm still confused..I'm going out to paint.