“Too big to fail” is a philosophy that a private company is too big and too important to be allowed to go bankrupt, and is therefore bailed out by the government.
 
“Too big to jail” is a takeoff on “too big to fail,” implying that the rules for most everyone else don’t apply to these big entities. ‘Too big to jail” has been cited in print since at least December 2008.
 
Similar phrases include “too small to bail,” “too big to comply” and “too big to prosecute.”
 
   
Jesse’s Café Américain
07 December 2008
Too Big to Jail
“Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.”
Edmund Burke
 
Although Nassim Taleb makes some excellent points he is a bit narrow in his analysis because of his superior knowledge and experience in a highly specific area of the crisis, which in some ways is a broader cultural crisis.
 
There may be enough fraud involved in the US over the past twenty years for multiple prosecutions under the RICO statutes. Or it just may be the end result of a general breakdown in morals, from the top down by example perhaps.
 
One does find some institutions appearing as enablers at the heart of every crisis, from LTCM to Enron to the Accounting Frauds to the Tech Bubble to the Credit Bubble.
(...)
The practical problem is that the institutions involved are probably too big to jail.
   
Free Republic
“the practical problem is that the institutions involved are too big to jail.”
yeah. just like the third reich.
IMHO
10 posted on Monday, December 08, 2008 6:07:27 AM by ripley
 
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From: “Gandalf Grey”

Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:53:24 -0800
Local: Thurs, Jan 29 2009 11:53 am
Subject: Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Jail
 
Published on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 by The San Francisco Chronicle
Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Jail
by Amy Goodman
 
Karl Rove recently described George W. Bush as a book lover, writing, “There is a myth perpetuated by Bush critics that he would rather burn a book than read one.”
       
Truthdig 
CARTOONS
Too Big to Jail
Posted on Sep 25, 2009
By Mike Luckovich

The Huffington Post
Norb Vonnegut
Posted: October 29, 2009 07:38 PM
Too Big to Jail
The government is exploring expansive controls over “too big to fail” financial institutions.
   
WallStreetOasis.com
Too Big To Jail?
by Edmundo Braverman on 11/12/09 at 4:11am
Are you surprised by the news that Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin skated on all charges? I know I am. I’m just not used to seeing a government case collapse after they’ve piled on a bunch of charges. The jury was unconvinced, though, and only took 9 hours of deliberation to deliver their Not Guilty verdict.
 
Mother Jones
Too Big to Jail?
Time to fix Wall Street’s accountability deficit.
— By Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery
January/February 2010 Issue
MAYBE WALL STREET should open a casino right there on the corner of Broad, because these guys simply cannot lose. After kneecapping the global economy, costing millions their homes and livelihoods, and saddling our grandchildren with massive debt—after all that, they’re cashing in their bonuses from 2008.