Today's Outrage: Preplanning Bank Burials

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The Obama Administration wants the biggest of the big banks to start planning their own funerals.

Any bank such as Citigroup (C Quote), Goldman Sachs (GS Quote) and Bank of America (BAC Quote) that is considered too big to fail because of its size, leverage or the degree that its operations are interwoven into the fabric of the entire financial system would need to draft detailed plans for unwinding their operations should it ever come to that.

An analysis of the administration's proposed regulatory overhaul by the Associated Press concludes that the new scrutiny, larger cash cushions and asset requirements that the administration desires are intended to limit the number of systemically risky financial institutions by making it unappealing to get that big.

Essentially, the proposed requirements would pressure the financial system to deconsolidate -- a classic knee-jerk reaction to the financial bailout intended to make it less likely to be repeated.

Much like the bailout itself, these hastily concocted hangover cures may have many unintended side effects. The cure may eventually make us all feel worse than the sickness ever did.

It reminds me of the environment of corporate misdeeds that prompted the onerous Sarbanes-Oxley rules. What a mess that turned out to be -- even former Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D., Md.) and former U.S. Rep. Michael Oxley (R., Ohio) later told me that they regretted the extent of the regulatory changes they championed.

So here we go again. This time, everyone should all read the fine print and fully understand what they are signing, in particular the consequences.