Today on Capitol Hill, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee that of the many financial companies in the U.S., there were only about 25 financial companies the federal government deemed too big to fail. The professor hastened to add this was a "very rough guess" and then deigned to name any names because identifying the winners would have just made the losers obvious, and look, there's no need to embarrass anyone, we're all adults here, and anyway, it's not like there's really a "list" somewhere, specifically not a black-and-white composition notebook hidden in a hollow tree along the Potomac, the location of which is known only to him and Tim Geithner, and if there is one and you opened it and CIT Group was listed at 26, well, like Bernanke said, there's no notebook. What notebook?

Bernanke Says About 25 Financial Firms Systemically Important [Bloomberg]