“Too small to bail”
“Too small to bail” is the opposite of “too big to fail.” A company that is very large is sometimes deemed “too big to fail” because many other companies would fail along with it. If a company or bank is small, it is often said to be “too small to bail” (too small to be bailed out by the government).
“Too small to bail” has been cited in print since July 2008. Similar phrases include “too big to jail,” “too big to comply” and “too big to prosecute.”
New York (NY) Times
Confidence in U.S. banking sector weakens
By Louise Story
Published: Tuesday, July 15, 2008
(...)
“We have seen a ‘too big, too important to fail’ instance,” said William Gross, the chief investment officer of the bond fund Pimco. “The market wonders: which institution is too small to bail out? Where is the dividing line? They seem to have picked on the regional banks as potential candidates to be the ones too small to bail out.”
Google Groups: Investor Forums
From: Ronald Chisley
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:42:59 -0700 (PDT)
Local: Tues, Jul 15 2008 6:42 am
Subject: [Investor Forums] <
> Banks Are The New Battering Rams
“The market wonders: which institution is too small to bail out?” said William H. Gross, the chief investment officer of Pimco, the large money management company. Traders “seem to have picked on the regional banks as potential candidates to be the ones too small to bail out.”
New York (NY) Times
Fair Game
Borrowers and Bankers: A Great Divide
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
Published: July 20, 2008
(...)
“The banks are too big to fail and the man in the street is too small to bail,” said John C. Bogle, the founder of the Vanguard Group, the mutual funds giant, who is a philosopher of finance.
democracy for utah
The banks are too big to fail, and the man in the street is too small to bail.
Submitted by UtahOwl on Mon, 07/21/2008 - 5:15pm.
That’s a direct quote from John Bogle, founder of Vanguard Group mutual funds. (Note: Mr Bogle does not approve of the current state of affairs which has allowed unbridled speculation to threaten our homes and our economic welfare.)
Google Books
Obama’s challenge:
America’s economic crisis and the power of a transformative presidency
By Robert Kuttner
White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Pub.
2008
Pg. 141:
As John Bogle, founder of Vanguard Group of mutual funds and the rare Wall Street statesman, aptly put it, “The
banks are too big to fail and the man in the street is too small to bail.”
DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com
Investment Banking
Scenes From a Merrill Meltdown
July 31, 2008, 4:47 pm
(...)
COMMENTS
August 1, 2008
11:32 am
FannyMac, Merrill, et al.: “Too big to fail.”
Average investors, homeowners, even municipalities that got snookered by auction-rate securities & credit-default swaps: “Too small to bail.”
Bottom-line: “Nobody goes to jail.”
Take the quotes & print ‘em on bumper-stickers.
— A. Reader
Google Books
Financial Reckoning Day:
Surviving Today’s Global Depression
By Addison Wiggin and William Bonner
Hoboken, NJ: John WIley & Sons, Inc.
2009
Pg. 314:
Too Small to Bail
AIG was deemed “too big to fail” . . . but Lehman Brothers investment bank was not so lucky.
breakingviews.com
28 SEP 2009 09:11
Too Small to Bail
By Rob Cox
Small vs. big banks:
(...)
While many of the largest lenders have, through the bailout policies of the past year, been officially designated too big to fail, no community bank represents a systemic risk. The president may be on to something in praising the merits of a financial system consisting of banks that are too small to bail.
DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com
Investment Banking
Too Small to Bail Has a Nice Ring to It
September 29, 2009, 4:12 am
Would the financial system have gotten into the mess it did if all the banks in the United States operated like small lenders? President Obama doesn’t seem to think so, Breakingviews.com says.
He even recognized “responsible lenders, including community banks, doing the right thing” in his Lehman Brothers anniversary speech. Leaders of big banks don’t agree, of course. But the numbers, at least for the moment, bear out the president’s thinking on the subject, the publication argues.
(...)
The president, Breakingviews.com says, may be on to something in praising the merits of a financial system consisting of banks that might be called too small to bail.