Early 2010, a gathering of business leaders in Switzerland. Mounting anger with the banks among industrial chief executives, who are beginning to feel that the financial sector’s rich blend of incompetence and incontinence threatens to make the entire capitalist system unacceptable to the public. The nearly new chairman of UBS – the most egregious Swiss culprit – is present, a former government minister of impeccable unbankerly credentials. He explains that UBS can do nothing whatever to change its business model, or to reduce compensation substantially, without putting itself at a severe competitive disadvantage.
2010年初,一羣商界領袖人物聚集到瑞士。對銀行日益惱火的實業界執行長(CEO)們開始感覺到,金融業同時呈現出不勝任和不自制的特點,可能導致整套資本主義制度再也無法被公衆接受。當時,瑞士最臭名昭著的罪魁禍首——瑞銀(UBS)上任不久的董事長也在場,他曾是一名政府部長,具有無懈可擊的「非銀行家」履歷。他解釋道,瑞銀根本不可能改變自身經營模式或者大幅調低薪酬水準,否則就會把自己置於非常不利的競爭地位。