"Too big to fail"

Question

Hola!

What does the English phrase "too big to fail" mean?

Does it mean that the company is too big to fail, like it's incapable of failing?

Or does it mean that the company just cannot fail for the sake of everyone's else? And if it were to fail, then all hell would break loose?

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

Ashis is right. No company is too big to make mistakes that would cause it to fail. The expression "too big to fail" has been used in public political and economic discourse.

See To Big To Fail

According to this theory, certain financial institutions are so large and so interconnected that their failure will be disastrous to an economy. Proponents of this theory believe that these institutions should become recipients of beneficial financial and economic policies from governments or central banks to keep them alive.

This helped me so much. Thank you, Pesta!! - SonrisaDelSol, Aug 13, 2011

Answer 2

It is a phrase used to trick the gullible public into allowing politicians (democrats and republicans in this country) to hand over trillions of dollars of our money to fat cat CEOs of certain corporations...usually poor, pitiful bankers who don't know where their next meal is coming from.

It also helps to create the illusion that a truly free market is somehow a bad idea, thus furthering the idea that we need a powerful central government and powerful central bank to keep things running smooth (i.e., to keep increasing our national debt to new heights).

Cheers.

I'm glad I was able to offer a completely unbiased and objective explanation for you. - webdunce, Aug 13, 2011

Unfortunately truly free markets don't exist, for much the same reason that the bailouts happened. - lorenzo9, Aug 13, 2011

Answer 3

Too big to fail= Idea that certain businesses are so important to the nation, that it would be disastrous if they were allowed to fail.

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Interesting! Thank you, Ashis! - SonrisaDelSol, Aug 13, 2011

Answer 4

The most recent example that I can think of is the bail out programme in the U.S. a few years back. The government decided that a certain group of companies were big enough, and that they employed such a large number of U.S. citizens, it would be disastrous to the country, as a whole, for them to "go under." Therefore, it was declared that those companies were "too big to fail," and took measures to prop them up.

Great explanation, thank you! - SonrisaDelSol, Aug 13, 2011

Answer 5

It's too big.. I'd say that it means it is too powerful, that at this point in it's career, it's impossible that it fail. Now as it has grown to such immensity it makes it's own profit

Thank you, Dew! - SonrisaDelSol, Aug 13, 2011

de nada - dewclaw, Aug 13, 2011

Answer 6

As in it is such a powerful company that there is no way that anything could stop it. (Well that's at least my interpretation).

Thanks :D - SonrisaDelSol, Aug 13, 2011