Maybe this "too big to fail" thing is a bad idea

Well after months and months of intense study and analysis, our elected betters, in conjunction with our economic and financial betters, have decided that it's possible that having financial and banking institutions that are "too big to fail" is a terrible idea that should be avoided all costs. I don't want to go too far out on a limb here, but I think that I might agree with that proposition.

A senior administration official said on Sunday that after extensive consultations with Treasury Department officials, Representative Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, would introduce legislation as early as this week. The measure would make it easier for the government to seize control of troubled financial institutions, throw out management, wipe out the shareholders and change the terms of existing loans held by the institution
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The White House plan as outlined so far would already make it much more costly to be a large financial company whose failure would put the financial system and the economy at risk. It would force such institutions to hold more money in reserve and make it harder for them to borrow too heavily against their assets.

Setting up the equivalent of living wills for corporations, that plan would require that they come up with their own procedure to be disentangled in the event of a crisis, a plan that administration officials say ought to be made public in advance.

I don't want to be too much of a stick in the mud, but I think we've seen that corporations already have a fairly well thought out plan in the event of a massive crisis of their own creation: bankrupting the world, cashing in massive bonuses, having the government bail them out, cashing in another round of massive bonuses, crying out for the need for another round of massive bonuses to retain the "talent" that wrecked the company in the first place, using the bailout money to make it look like you made a profit, fund another round bonuses and hire lobbyists to stop any attempts at regulation, hand out another round of bonuses just for the executives, then retreat to one of your estates to hide behind a fort made of gold bullion whilst shouting missives about "class warfare", seems like a damn fine plan. Why come up with a new one?

Still, if Barney Frank wants to be a dick about it, I guess the financial institutions of this great nation will have to take one more freedom death blow for the betterment of mankind. They're so selfless. I do see one flaw in this plan: it still allows for the "too big to fail" institutions to become "too big to fail" and do bombing and strafing runs on the economy. It is a plan for buying a pool skimmer after AIG drops a turd in the punchbowl, not getting security to tase the shit out of it when it drops its pants and tries to clamber up on the table. Maybe, and again I don't want to go too far out on a limb here, we should work on laws that stop it from happening in the first place, instead of coming up with the most streamlined way to boot executives out and funnel a trillion bucks worth of tax dollars into the financial sector the next time the do something silly and make unemployment hit 10%. I'm just saying.