Too Big to Fail Viewing Guide

Too Big to Fail? - Full Video 10:56

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdYBkjNStBc Feb 21, 2017 How is business like a wild animal? When you feed a wild animal, it grows used to handouts and becomes unable to fend for itself. The law of the jungle says “survival of the fittest” and yet we’ve decided that some companies are “too big to fail” and must be rescued. This isn’t new. The massive East India Company, whose tea ended up in Boston Harbor in 1773, was supported by the British government. Lobbying. Crony capitalism. Sweetheart, backroom deals... Who pays when businesses are declared “too big to fail?" izzitEDU

1. The story of the ________ __________ ______________ highlights how easy it is to divert ____________ resources for ______________ gain.

2. It was East India Company ______ that was thrown into the ____________ at ____________.

3. Now, it might be too much of an exaggeration to say that the East India Company's ________________ caused the ________________ ____________________, but it was definitely a factor.

4. ________________ pays very well. And not just for the lobbyists. The real payoffs go to the ________________________ they represent.

5. But now almost ____% of the nation’s corn crop goes into making ______________, which has driven the price of ________ way up. 

6. It makes ________ farmers and processors happy because it gives them a ____________________ profit. But all of us have to pay more for foods that use corn, especially meat and poultry.

7. This is Adam __________’__ key insight: ______________________ is not a way of giving power to companies. It’s a way of giving us __________ over them. 

Read the entire passage first. Then fill in the blanks with words from the table above: 

Eighteenth-century ____________ didn’t have cars or buses, but it was a huge, vibrant ____________________; and the center of important __________________ debates. The problems of Smith’s day were very similar to ours: poverty and unemployment, political pork, foreign conflict, runaway spending, and a burgeoning ________________ debt. Some of that debt can be blamed on the monopolistic East India Company. The company had its own army and navy and ________________ ships, and accounted for much of the world’s __________. The company even minted its own coins. But the East India Company was not very ____________________, in part because of its military __________________ in India. As a result, the British government stepped in to help. The British government allowed the company to sell tea to the American ________________ at a lower tax rate than local merchants could. This led to the Boston Tea Party. Governments still give breaks to some businesses, usually the ones that __________ government officials for help or protection from competitors. Sometimes governments give companies tax breaks, other times they help them by limiting ______________________. Often, government claims these businesses are too big to ________. But helping certain businesses is done at the expense of other businesses and __________________. This is called crony ____________________. Nearly 250 years ago, ________ __________ pointed out the problems that resulted from such behavior. Yet today, the behavior continues.

• What was the most important lesson you learned after watching this video?