Too Big To Fail

We started hearing the term (more and more) “Too Big To Fail” during the credit crisis with respect to US banks. Essentially, people thought the cascade effect of allowing certain entities to fail would be too much to bear.

Too Big To Save

After the Eurozone debt crisis heated up from Portugal and Greece (which were relatively small) to Italy and Spain (relatively large) we started hearing the term “Too Big To Save” – did we even have the means to save these countries if they were deemed Too Big To Fail?

Well, this evening I heard a funny play on the “Too Big To…” meme: “Too Big To Keep It Real”.

Too Big To Keep It Real

Specifically, this was used by Downtown Josh Brown (The Reformed Broker) on his blog post titled “Downtown’s Rules for Surviving a Crash“. It refers to the tendency of an asset manager to avoid recommending a sell because they make their money based on how much you have invested.

It’s vitally important to understand the conflicts of interest at play whenever you seek advice.