Because large financial institutions are bailed out by governments when they fail, they receive a subsidy from taxpayers. How valuable is this too-big-to-fail subsidy to large financial institutions? Click here for an IMF study which suggests that it is substantial. Mark Roe has an opinion piece at Project Syndicate which also suggests that big banks enjoy a large subsidy from the taxpayer.
Michael Aldous and I had our book The CEO: The Rise and Fall of Britain's Captains of Industry published a few weeks ago. You can find out more about it and buy it at Cambridge University Press's website . It is also available at Amazon , Waterstones , and Barnes & Noble . The CEO has already been reviewed in The Sunday Times , The Observer and Financial Times .