"Too Big to Fail" refers to businesses or industries so crucial to the economy that their collapse would cause widespread financial harm, prompting potential government intervention to prevent it.

The phrase “too big to fail,” often used to describe giants in the financial and automotive industries, stemmed from a massive bank failure.

Bank of America’s purchase of Countrywide exposes fissures brought on by the mortgage crisis, says Andrew Jakabovics. Rarely does a merger of two companies encapsulate the utter failure of government ...