THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

That is the call from Public Citizen in their petition to Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke as the chairman and vice chairman of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, respectively.

the group argues that the bank is too big to be either governed or regulated, and represents a real risk to the financial system. They are urging Mr. Geithner and Mr. Bernanke to use their power under Dodd-Frank to dismantle the bank, in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the breakup of AT&T three decades ago. In an accompanying letter, a group of leading business law professors urge regulators to take any actions necessary to ensure systemic stability,” although they do not go as far as urge a breakup of the bank.

While a forcible breakup of Bank of America would be exactly the kind of bold move on financial regulation that we have not seen at all from the Obama administration, the petition does have a point.

The bank is a behemoth, and if it were ever necessary to unwind it, I think we have to assume it would be something of a disaster, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s fondness for its new orderly liquidation authority notwithstanding. Lehman Brothers, for example, reported assets of $713 billion when it filed for bankruptcy in September 2008. Bank of America, meanwhile, reported $2.3 trillion in assets at the end of 2010. In other words, Bank of America is more than three times larger than the biggest bankruptcy ever.

Think the collapse of MF Global was a problem? Bank of America broker-dealer units hold more than $2.2 trillion in client assets. The bank reports that in the United States alone it has more than 57 million consumer and small-business banking relationships. It holds more than $1 trillion in banking deposits.

They are right that the bank is too large to manage by the current group in charge. And it is unlikely that any one else could do so within the boundaries of the law. And BoA management was always the kid from the wrong side of the tracks on Wall St., without the happy ending. With proper regulation and oversight, the pieces can operate quite nicely on their own.