The banks and other entities are not only too big to fail. They are

[Are_grits_groceries]

too big to care.

They know that they will be protected by the PTB in all cases. Some how or some way, they will get out of any mess ok. Their employees may not, but the institutions will remain. They may change their names or make other cosmetic changes, but the rotten core of assets and practices are forever. Too many people who have gathered some modicum of power have a vested stake in them. They either don't realize or care that as long as their is somebody with a little more power, they are expendable.

The great unwashed are of no concern to them. As long as there is some semblance of order in the government and economy, they will always make out like bandits. They overstepped in the last few years and almost brought the whole house down. That was just a blip on the radar as they continued their global pillaging and burning. There were plenty of people that helped them try to put the pieces back together.

There is really no class warfare at this point. That's because they remain above the fray and aren't engaged. They have minions who scuttle about on cloven hooves to do their bidding.

The only stock that is a sure bet is in the market for gruel. That particular commodity is rising every day.

We are slouching towards some destination, and I don't think it's Bethlehem. The center cannot hold because there is very little of the center remaining. I expect to hear the sound of knitting needles clicking at some point. That will signal the end of the beginning or more than likely, the beginning of the end.

[ixion]

1. "Too big to fail" is a myth. They have already failed.

they're already insolvent, the government is just allowing them to pretend like they're not.

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. The term 'failed' is interpreted in different ways.

Your insolvency is their time out to regather and morph into the same bandits with new names and even more confusing gobbledygook in thei documents consumers have to decipher. They haven't really failed by a long shot.

The general public is akin to Sigourney Weaver carefully walking through the halls festooned with the 'dead' bodies of aliens. She knows and we know they aren't really dead. The only questions are when they will emerge and in what form.

I don't think the government is really in charge of them by a long shot. If it was, the changes we would have seen would have been much different.

[ixion]

3. No, they are insolvent by any traditional idea of what insolvency is.

the only reason they're still in existence is that the government allowed them to not write down the value of their toxic assets, unlike any other company.

In no uncertain terms: They would have ceased to exist were it not for the government.

[Are_grits_groceries]

4. Do you really believe the government

would have forced them to take that kind of hit? The market plunge and the resulting financial chaos around the globe would have been extraordinary. The people in charge of these entities are perfectly capable of creating a global mess at any point by moving the 'wrong way.'

I don't believe the government or anybody has a real clue about how entangled all the financial groups around the world are or what the Federal Reserve has been up to. One foot may be stepped on here, and lo and behold, some unexpected area of the country or the world shakes.

[SOS]

5. The US government is a lowly Wall Street employee

In Europe, however, we may soon see "too big to bail".

Greece will default. Bond vigilantes are on the attack in the periphery.
The entire Western capitalist system is hanging by a thread.

Nations will soon go under in the sea of debt. They'll take the French and German (and American) banks with them.
There won't be enough taxpayer money on earth to save them.

It's February 1931 and Credit Anstalt is about to go under.

[DirkGently]

6. Turning & turning ... very well put.