A Bailout is when a business, an individual, or a government provides money and/or resources (also known as a capital injection) to a failing company. These actions help to prevent the consequences of that business's potential downfall which may include bankruptcy and default on its financial obligations.Businesses and governments may receive a bailout which may take the form of a loan, the purchasing of bonds, stocks or cash infusions, and may require the recused party to reimburse the support, depending upon the terms. In some cases where businesses are deemed too big to fail by government regulators or politicians they will be given taxpayer dollars in order to keep them afloat. This has been seen most notably in 2008 with banks such as Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers during The Great Recession. While there have been instances where bailouts have benefited taxpayers by preventing economic collapse (such as in Sweden during their banking crisis in 1992), more often than not bailouts result in increased public debt levels without actually saving jobs or rescuing companies from ruinous failure.
