Uh, actually I think the first "too big to fail" bank was Continental Illinois, bailed out in the seventies. Funny how this claim might give one the impression that the Fed under Greenspan wasn't indirectly pumping up the market based on investors relying on the credit of "too big to fail" institutions. But it absolutely was. Indeed investors relying on the "too big to fail" assumption underlay the whole subprime/AIG/etc episode and Greenspan was at the helm at this time.

Though to be fair, the collapse was somewhat hastened by Paulson and company being inconsistent in their judgments about who should fail, killing Lehman but saving AIG. This, and only this, is something Greenspan might complain.

"Look, my house of card, you Cretans let it collapse"