So governments want to protect the big companies in their countries? Why would that be a bad thing? You can argue that it prevents a true market from appearing but a true market is not necessarily good for every country.
Sometimes we need to think both globally and locally. It is important that China has good and big companies in every major area (one reason is to make sure know-how exists in the country). It is important that the US, Japan, Germany, UK, etc. also have. Locally, the cost of loosing knowledge (and independence in a way) is usually much greater to a country that simply handing over a few b$ once in a while. Also globally it makes sure we foster competition. We, the world, need the Boing vs Airbus vs all smaller ones competition even that is costs us money.
Please don't forget that our world is not globalized politically, socially or economically, so a pure, free market doesn't really exist (thankfully!)
Also, this doesn't mean governments should be freely handing over checks to big companies rewarding their incompetence. But sometimes they need too because the cost of failure is greater than the cost of the money. Citi is a good example. Now if governments really cared about taxpayer money, they should go after bad management -- after or even before bailouts -- but, hey, if they were good managers, politicians would never be politicians in the first place, right?
