Reply #4: That's a matter of definition

[zipplewrath]

But you can see the strategy already. The GOP is against the government being able to "take over" institutions, much as the FDIC does, prior to collapse. They want the companies to have to actually "fail" first, and then the government step in. It is probably true that in the former, there will be more take overs than actually letting them fail since occasionally some banks will recover. The problem is, exactly what we saw, is that if you essentially wait for them to fail, it is the "too big to fail" problem all over again where the tax payer gets stuck cleaning up the mess long after it has become extrodinarily expensive. The government would rather get ahold of the company before it has been sucked dry of any capital and assets that could be used to restructure and sell off the company and/or its assets.