Finding the Jobs

It’s not as nutty as it sounds, according to New York Times business columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin.  When it comes to handing out bonuses, Sorkin suggests that the government might do well to get into the act:  to protect the public’s money, it just might make good sense to offer it to federal regulators.  Here’s why:

“Wall Street lures a lot of bright minds with money.  Can the federal agencies [who were created to protect us from fraud and excess] compete?  They can’t.

Wall Street executives champion the idea of incentives to defend their industry’s bonus culture.  Those carrots, the bankers argue, make the markets work (at least when incentives are properly aligned.)

So maybe the regulators should embrace the bonus culture too—for themselves.”

(from NYT, February 3, 2009, Business Section)

Consider this:  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, a guy who’s under a lot of pressure to turn the economy around makes less than $200,000;  the Securities and Exchange Commission head Mary L. Schapiro, under the same level of pressure will earn $162,000.   Compared with the compensation of failed executives at financial institutions, that’s the equivalent of chump change.  So why not offer bonuses, or incentives to protect the public’s money?

Sorkin credits attendees at the meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) for the notion of bonuses.  The WEF,  “an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas, met at what Sorkin calls an “annual schmooze-fest in Davos.”  (Yes, that Davos—Switzerland.)

But schmooze-fest or not, it’s certainly time to shake things up with new ideas that may makes sense.

And what could make more sense than an arrangement that offers incentives to federal employees working on behalf of the public?

Let me know what you think.  Email me at moneymattersandmore@yahoo.com, or leave a comment below.  To subscribe, click on the orange icon on the right side of the blog.

Thanks for reading the Money Matters and More blog.

Heather Taylor