Brown wins G20 battle against caps on bank bonuses

[CHIMO]

Source: The Observer

Britain and US secure agreement that limits on incentives would be impossible to enforce

Britain and America won a battle to stop "unenforceable" new rules to cap bankers' bonuses yesterday as G20 nations struggled to agree on how to keep the global economy on course for recovery.

While France and Germany had pushed strongly for a strict new system to limit payments, London and Washington argued that it would be impossible to police and disguised the greater need for banks to strengthen their finances by holding more capital.

Instead of the idea punted by Paris and Berlin, finance ministers agreed that ways would be sought to ensure bonuses were paid over longer periods – with no upfront cash payments – so they would reward long-term success rather than short-term risk-taking.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/sep/06/brown-halts-bonus-caps

[Deja Q]

1. Did Britain or the US offer counter-proposals? Or did they just huff and puff and hissy-fight?

[Lionel Mandrake]

2. It's really difficult to enforce such rules when you don't even try.

The bad guys won this round.

[Fearless]

3. I wonder who funded that battle...

:eyes:

[Frank Booth]

4. What a surprise.

When almost the entire financial side of the administration is made up of former Goldman Sachs employees . . .

[Metta]

5. Really. Profits over the greater good, once again.

The people were sold out on that one.

[Metta]

6. Doing the least they could do, for (a) change they could count on. Profits over the greater good.

The shallow show of doing something while profiting their friends for a change.

[fasttense]

7. Because we know those CEOs really need that money in order to

cheat the common man.

[Ghost Dog]

8. There's a little more info on this here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6474191

:shrug:

[Vidar]

9. Victory for the anglo-american elite; defeat for the world.

[FarCenter]

11. Not defeat; it clarifies the situation with the US/UK on one side and everyone else on the other

[Vidar]

12. Exactly. As under Bush, we continue to be the "bad guys".

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. Unenforceable?

It's called a top marginal tax rate.

Or, in the alternative, a capital gains tax.

Easily enforceable. It's done all the time.