This isn't the first time the US government bailed out "too big to fail" companies. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was created in the 1930s, following a torrent of bank failures, in order to monitor banks and protect consumer deposits. In 1979, the government bailed out Chrysler Corporation. It was a smaller bailout—only $1.5 billion—but the justifications were similar. National security was invoked; the company was building the M1 Abrams tank during the height of the Cold War. The economy was invoked; it was necessary to save 700,000 jobs in Detroit and beyond. And the US was in the middle of an automotive trade war with Japan.