Questions of equity

　　公平問題和股權(quán)問題

　　Sep 25th 2008

　　From The Economist print edition

　　Salary caps are a rotten idea; but the crisis also carries lessons for regulators and workers

　　薪酬限制是個極糟糕的主意;但是這場危機(jī)也給監(jiān)管者和工作者都上了一課

　　IT IS easy to understand why many in Congress and beyond have demanded salary caps on bank executives as a condition of approving the Bush administration’s bail-out of the financial system. After all, many of the people who will be leading the effort to get the banks back on their feet were the very same masters of the universe whose greed and myopia brought the industry to its knees in the first place. Nonetheless the lawmakers’ apparent decision to impose some form of still unspecified wage limit, a demand reluctantly accepted by Hank Paulson and the Bush administration this week, is a mistake.

　　為何眾多國會議員和廣大群眾都要求將銀行高管的薪酬限制作為批準(zhǔn)布什政府金融救援計(jì)劃的一個條件呢?這個很好理解。畢竟，盡管是這些銀行高管將要用他們的力量來幫這些銀行擺脫困境，恢復(fù)原樣。而正是由于這些曾是世界霸主的銀行高管的貪婪和短視，首先將整個行業(yè)拖入泥淖。盡管如此，立法者這個強(qiáng)制限制薪酬–本周被保爾森和布什政府勉強(qiáng)接受–也是個錯誤的決定。

　　Just now, it is a struggle to keep a straight face when you read the words “talent” and “Wall Street” in the same sentence. And yet, precisely because it is in a mess, the financial system will need decent managers if it is to return to the health that benefits the rest of the economy. The sort of sums that would satisfy Congress as a cap may be far above the incomes of average Americans, but there is no surer way of driving finance offshore or into hedge funds where it is beyond the gaze of regulators. Besides, if ever there was a time when pay in banking and broking is likely to be depressed by the market, it is now. The bubble did not only inflate asset prices, it also inflated pay. Now the bubble has burst and hundreds of thousands of finance professionals want work.

　　剛才，當(dāng)你在同一個句子里讀到”人才”和”華爾街”這些詞的時候，會努力控制自己不要笑出聲來�？墒�，恰恰由于其正處困境，金融系統(tǒng)要想恢復(fù)健康進(jìn)而使其余經(jīng)濟(jì)部分也從中獲益，必須要有優(yōu)秀的經(jīng)理人。國會滿意的薪酬上限應(yīng)該比美國人平均收入要高的多，但是并不能保證那些金融資本不會轉(zhuǎn)移到離岸金融公司或者對沖基金，在那里不必?fù)?dān)心金融監(jiān)管者的監(jiān)視。此外，現(xiàn)在正是銀行和經(jīng)紀(jì)業(yè)由于市場疲軟而薪酬低迷的時候。以前的泡沫不僅膨脹了資產(chǎn)的價(jià)格，同時也膨脹了薪酬�，F(xiàn)在泡沫破裂了，成千上萬的金融專業(yè)人士在尋找工作。

　　American politicians have a lamentable record of intervening in setting executive pay. In the early years of the Clinton administration, Congress imposed a salary cap of $1m, beyond which firms faced a tax penalty. Pay rose, as one set of executives, beneath the cap, realised that they were “underpaid” and another set gained from an outpouring of creativity, as consultants invented myriad option schemes, perks and pension benefits to get around the limit. This only made it harder for shareholders to know who was getting what.

　　美國政客在干預(yù)高管薪酬設(shè)定上曾經(jīng)有段不愉快的歷史。在克林頓政府早期，國會將高管薪酬強(qiáng)制定在100萬美元，超過這個數(shù)字將會受到稅收懲罰。于是，對于高管來說有就一套低于那個最高限制薪酬標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。薪酬提高了，一部分高管，意識到薪酬限制讓他們受到”剝削”了，而另外一部分人通過創(chuàng)新方式，作為公司顧問發(fā)明出諸多的期權(quán)計(jì)劃，補(bǔ)助，養(yǎng)老津貼等等來繞過薪酬限制。這么做的唯一結(jié)果就是讓股東更難知道那些高管拿多少薪酬了。

　　If the foolishness of Congress setting corporate pay levels is an old lesson, the financial crisis is teaching some new ones to shareholders. First, forget the received wisdom that paying people in large amounts of shares in their own firm ensures they take sensible value-maximising decisions. In the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, the management did not just take reckless gambles with other people’s money. Dick Fuld and Jimmy Cayne took reckless gambles with their own-and still they failed to do the right things and ended up losing most of their fortunes. Outside shareholders should remember that loading up the people at the top with shares can be an aid to corporate governance, but not a substitute for it.

　　如果國會愚蠢地設(shè)定公司的薪酬是個老教訓(xùn)，那么這場金融危機(jī)正在給股東帶來一個新的教訓(xùn)。首先，不要相信廣為認(rèn)可的論斷–給那些經(jīng)理人大量本公司的股份就能保證使他們做出利益最大化的決定。在雷曼和貝爾斯登倒臺中我們可以看到，那些管理層不僅僅是拿著別人錢的在魯莽賭徒。迪克福德和杰米凱恩還是拿著自己的錢來魯莽地下賭注，但最終他們都未能做出正確的抉擇從而失掉了其絕大部分的財(cái)產(chǎn)。處于管理層外的股東要牢記，給那些管理者以股票只能對其管理有幫助，但是并不能代替公司管理。

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