In the world of money, businesses, including banks and non-bank financial companies, face adversaries and often fail. When they do occur, most failures do not result in extreme externalities. In other words, the loss of the company does not place its counterparties in a difficult situation. Ergo, the company would go through a usual resolution process provided by the government. But some large companies are receiving “special” treatment due to the government’s fear that its losses could have disproportionate negative externalities on the economy and thus threaten financial stability. These are the companies to which the “too big to fail” formula applies, also known as “TBTF”. They are also referred to as “too big to fail,” “too big to liquidate,” “too big to liquidate,” and, more recently, “too big to jail.” (Kaufman, 2013) Due to their ability to bring down the entire economy in a crisis, they are inundated with government funding as well as ongoing bailouts. This unconditional support has fueled generations and generations of controversy. The controversy centers on the extent to which government should intervene with financial corporations, whether it has led the economy toward the desired outcome, and the flaws in this ironic concept. Despite its protective and just pretensions, the TBTF regime has become an important public issue in question. Attempts to justify the TBTF have not proven as convincing, in part because its definition has not yet been settled. In other words, there is no established standard for knowing precisely who gets bailed out and who doesn't, under what circumstances. Beyond the limit of what is possible to avoid all bank insolvency losses, it is inevitable to take decisions to protect selected but not all depositors. This decision is mainly based on ...... middle of paper ...... n Sachs won thanks to the bailout of AIG. [online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/jan/27/goldman-sachs-received-aig-bailout-cash [Accessed April 28, 2014]. Scheer, R. 2013. Also - big banks that go bankrupt abuse low interest rates. [online] May 17, 2013. Available at: http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/opinion/scheer-too-big-to-fail-banks-abusing-low-interest/article_32858328-2ce4-5e35-a4dc-70f836bb61d6 .html [Accessed March 14, 2014]. Simon, A. 2013. How to Fix a Problem Too Big to Fail. [online] October 21, 2013. Available at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/361719/how-fix-too-big-fail-ammon-simon [Accessed March 16, 2014].Treanor, J. 2013. UK banks benefited from €38 billion 'too big to fail' state subsidy. [online] Tuesday 17 December 2013. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/dec/17/uk-banks-benefit-from-massive-state-subsidies [Accessed 14 March 2014].