Carrots are out, sticks are in. France, Germany and the UK at least agree on one thing: the need to clamp down on bankers' pay. France's president Nicolas Sarkozy wants to cap payments and has signed up French banks to a bonus code, along similar lines to the UK regulator's proposals. Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel wants to control banks' size. British prime minister Gordon Brown, meanwhile, says bonuses should reward only long-term performance. Ahead of this month's G20 summit, it is hard to ignore the ironies.
胡蘿卜被丟到了一邊,大棒已揮舞起來。法國、德國和英國至少在一件事情上達成了一致:有必要嚴格限制銀行家的薪酬。法國總統尼古拉?薩科齊(Nicolas Sarkozy)想要設定薪酬上限,并已經要求法國各銀行簽訂了獎金準則,這種做法與英國監管機構的提議大致相似。德國總理安格拉?默克爾(Angela Merkel)希望控制銀行的規模。英國首相戈登?布朗(Gordon Brown)則表示,獎金只應該是對長期績效的獎勵。在本月的20國集團(G20)峰會即將召開之際,很難對一些具有諷刺意味的事情不理不睬。