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Concept

Too big to fail

The idea that regulators would not let a very large bank fail, or would protect its creditors if it did.

2 links, 2 backed by primary records

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The phrase was used about Lockheed in the mid-1970s and about Continental Illinois in print in July 1984, before the House hearings of September and October 1984 where Representative McKinney used it. The FDIC’s own history calls it inaccurate. In 2010 Congress wrote the aim of ending it into the title of Dodd-Frank.

Connections 2

followed from

  • Rescue of Continental Illinois, 1984 Primary record 12

    The New York Fed notes the phrase appeared in the 1970s about Lockheed and in print about Continental before the hearings. The FDIC’s history calls it inaccurate: too big to liquidate would have been more appropriate.

influenced

Proof 3 sources
  1. History of the Eighties: Lessons for the Future, Volume I, chapter 7: Continental Illinois and Too Big to Fail, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 1997. Primary record
    the policy of differential treatment was soon given the rather inaccurate sobriquet of too big to fail
  2. Historical Echoes: “Too Big to Fail” Is One Big Phrase, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Oct 2012. Primary record
    Actually, the phrase appeared even earlier, in the mid-1970s, in discussions of Lockheed Corporation.
  3. Public Law 111-203, Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, 124 Stat. 1376, U.S. Government Publishing Office (govinfo), 21 Jul 2010. Primary record
    to end “too big to fail”, to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts
Page history 3 changes
  1. Second revision of Too Big to Fail: the FTC's 1917 finding, the 1952 report's seven firms, the 1984 hearing record, and corrected cards for Spirit, beef, tickets, Google and the final verdictAlibek05663c47
  2. Revise Too Big to Fail after the skeptic's review: read to 2 November 2026, a verdict card that separates findings from shares, the 1929 fight with its scandal and the board's stand, and sources for every cardAlibekc819f2cb
  3. Add the story Too Big to Fail: Standard Oil's stockholders, the phrase's origin in 1984, and market-by-market cases to November 2026Alibekaa9c434d

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