There have been debates going on for a while as to whether the six large 'too-big-to-fail' US banks have had an advantage over their smaller counterparts in terms of lower borrowing rates. Analysts of Goldman Sachs - one of the six TBTF banks - recently released a report reasoning why this TBTF logic is flawed. But an interesting article in Bloomberg counters most of the arguments. On an overall basis, the key question is whether these TBTF banks are borrowing at rates lower than they otherwise would. And not necessarily in comparison to the smaller banks; all this given that they have backing from the government. Let us take up an example. Companies' debt instruments are given various ratings. What the author of the article is suggesting is that one should not be comparing a company having 'AAA' rating with one having a relatively lower rating of 'A'. Instead, within companies having 'AAA' ratings, can a particular company get more of an advantage just because it is funded or backed by the government? Looking at it from this perspective, we believe it surely does weaken the analysts' stand.