Nothing has been done about bonuses or the absent link between pay and performance
Bonuses are pay for performance.
Nothing has been done about the huge profits investment banks skim off all transactions – while they resist a tiny transaction tax.
The transactions tax being advocated is larger than the profits being skimmed off the transactions. That\’s in fact the very aim of it.
The mooted transactions tax is indeed idiotic.
However, although bonuses are indeed pay for performance, the objection is that in many cases the criteria for “performance” are undemanding to the point of irrelevance. My favourite example is the (recently disbanded) UK Film Council, where the Chief Executive was paid an annual bonus for not resigning. In short, his performance target was to turn up to work. On this basis ( who would have thought it) he managed to turn in a satisfactory performance on a consistent basis year after year after year. This is just one example; don’t get me started on Cable and Wireless.