Financial regulators in Britain have imposed a rather unusual rule on the bosses of big banks. Starting next year, any guaranteed bonus of top executives could be delayed 10 years if their banks are under investigation for wrongdoing. The main purpose of this “clawback” rule is to hold bankers accountable for harmful risk-taking and to restore public trust in financial institution. Yet officials also hope for a much larger benefit: more long term decision-making not only by banks but by all corporations, to build a stronger economy for future generations.
英国的金融监管机构对大银行的老板实施了一项非常不寻常的规定。从明年开始，如果银行的高层管理人员因违法行为受到调查，那么他们的任何绩效奖金都可能会被推迟10年。这一“追回”规则的主要目的是让银行家对有害的风险承担责任，并恢复公众对金融机构的信任。然而，官员们也希望获得更大的好处：不仅是银行，而且是所有公司都能做出更长期的决策，为子孙后代建立一个更强大的经济体。
“Short-termism” or the desire for quick profits, has worsened in publicly traded companies, says the Bank of England’s top economist. Andrew Haldane. He quotes a gaint of classical economics, Alfred Marshall, in describing this financial impatience as acting like “Children who pick the plums out of their pudding to eat them at once” rather than putting them aside to be eaten last.
英国央行（Bank of England）首席经济学家表示，在上市公司中，“短期主义”或对快速获利的渴望已经恶化。安德鲁·霍尔丹。他引用了古典经济学的观点，阿尔弗雷德·马歇尔（Alfred Marshall），在描述这种金融不耐烦时，表现得像“小孩摘下李子立刻吃掉”，而不是把它们放在一边等最后吃。
The average time for holding a stock in both the United States and Britain, he notes, has dropped from seven years to seven months in recent decades. Transient investors, who demand high quarterly profits from companies, can hinder a firm’s efforts to invest in long-term research or to build up customer loyalty. This has been dubbed “quarterly capitalism”
他指出，在美国和英国持有股票的平均时间在近几十年已经从7年下降到7个月。短期投资者要求公司提供高季度利润，这会阻碍公司投资长期研究或建立客户忠诚度的努力。这被称为“季度资本主义”
In the US, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has pushed most public companies to defer performance bonuses for senior executives by about a year, slightly helping reduce “short-termism.” In its latest survey of CEO pay, The Wall Street Journal finds that “a substantial part” of executive pay is now tied to performance.
在美国，《2002年萨班斯—奥克斯利法案》（Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002）已经促使大多数上市公司将高管的绩效奖金推迟了大约一年，略微有助于减少“短期主义”。《华尔街日报》（Wall Street Journal）在其最新的CEO薪酬调查中发现，高管薪酬的“很大一部分”现在与绩效挂钩。
Within companies, the right compensation design can provide incentives for executives to think beyond their own time at the company and on behalf of all stakeholders. Britain’s new rule is a reminder to bankers that society has an interest in their performance, not just for the short term but for the long term.
在公司内部，正确的薪酬设计可以激励高管们超越自己在公司的时间和代表所有利益相关者进行思考。英国的新规则提醒银行家，社会对他们的表现有兴趣，不仅是短期的，而且是长期的。
In addition, new digital technologies have allowed more rapid trading of equities, quicker use of information, and thus shorters attention spans in financial markets. “There seems to be a predominance of short-term thinking at the expense of long-term investing,” said Commissioner Daniel Gallagher of the US Securities and Exchange Commission in a speech this week.
此外，新的数字技术使股票交易更加迅速，信息使用更加迅速，从而缩短了金融市场的关注范围。美国证券交易委员会（US Securities and Exchange Commission）委员丹尼尔·加拉赫（Daniel Gallagher）本周在一次演讲中表示：“以牺牲长期投资为代价的短期思维似乎占主导地位。”
Much more could be done to encourage “long-termism,” such as changes in the tax code and quicker disclosure of stock acquisitions. In France, shareholders who hold onto a company investment for at least two years can sometimes earn more voting rights in a company.
可以做更多的工作来鼓励“长期主义”，如改变税法和更快地披露股票收购。在法国，持有公司投资至少两年的股东有时可以在公司获得更多的投票权。
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