there are lots of bonus structures that mitigate this risk. some things you can do:
1. clawback clauses. when investments underperform, you take back bonus money. this goes well with:
2. long term vesting. you don't collect the entire bonus up front. you get it spread out over an extended period of time (say, 10 years), contingent on continued success / your bank still existing.
in fact, many banks and hedge funds already implement these ideas. of course, if you're writing a newspaper article, you can get a lot more pageviews by papering over this fact and saying the most populist thing you can think of.
1. clawback clauses. when investments underperform, you take back bonus money. this goes well with:
2. long term vesting. you don't collect the entire bonus up front. you get it spread out over an extended period of time (say, 10 years), contingent on continued success / your bank still existing.
in fact, many banks and hedge funds already implement these ideas. of course, if you're writing a newspaper article, you can get a lot more pageviews by papering over this fact and saying the most populist thing you can think of.