Our banks are on the rocks because their executives looted them and their boards let them get away with it. Outfits like AIG, RBS, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch were a disgrace – a profound example of the agency problem in action. Dispersed shareholdings and misaligned incentives meant many of the senior staff were on a “heads I win, tails the bank loses” deal. A true sense of ownership and obligation was missing. So, vastly respected businesses with enormous assets, massive market shares, glorious histories and huge employee numbers were brought to the edge of bankruptcy. Perhaps in previous eras there was a greater sense of responsibility and prudence among their leaders, and the financial services industry was a simpler, less international affair.
我們的銀行陷入困境，因為它們遭到了自身高管的掠奪，而且董事會讓他們逃脫了處罰。美國國際集團(AIG)、蘇格蘭皇家銀行(RBS)、雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)和美林(Merrill Lynch)等機構是個恥辱——是現實中代理問題的深刻例證。股權分散和錯位的激勵措施，意味著許多高層人員玩著“正面我贏，反面銀行輸”的游戲。真正的主人翁精神和責任感已經喪失。因此，備受尊敬、擁有龐大資產、大塊市場份額、光輝歷史和眾多員工的企業紛紛被推到破產邊緣。也許昔日，它們的領導人更有責任感，行事更加謹慎，金融服務業也更為簡單，不那么國際化。