So there it is…big “Pru” of the old country has put its hand up to take over the beast of the New Frontier. No tea party protest here, I reckon. Ben Bernanke is probably happy that Messrs Thidjane Thiam et al have decided to have a go and Bob Benmoshe is happy to let them. Mervyn King however, should probably think about whether this is a good idea. What if big Pru also takes over the mettle of being too big to fail, as AIG was? $35.5b sounds a lot but when it is all done and dusted, the monster would have been considerably bigger.