Wall Street's Short Term Incentives Are Still a Problem
The structure of Wall Street compensation still needs improvement, according to pay consultant Alan Johnson.
A popular image of Wall Street is as a place where traders at companies like Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley or JPMorgan Chase are incentivized to take big outsized bets. If they bet right, they will reap a huge bonus. If they are wrong, they suffer few consequences. But that image isn’t quite right, according to Johnson Associates managing director Alan Johnson, who says getting hired again after a big trading blowup isn't so easy. 'Historically traders took chances. Sometimes they took chances they didn’t understand, but it’s rare where people take huge outsized bets and know that’s what they’re doing,' Johnson says.
