TOTM

The optimal level of risk is not zero

I have said it before and I’ll say it again: All of this hand wringing over executive compensation seems to exist in a parallel world where corporate executives have no risk aversion, where there is no real competition for managerial talent, and where firms can only take on too much–never too little–risk.  And this in a day and age (the age of never-ending financial reform regulation, Lehman/Bear, enormous public scrutiny of financial and banking industries, etc.) when the downside from excessive risk-taking is now either a) extremely large or b) non-existent (but only because of guaranteed government bail-outs).  In either case, fiddling with compensation schemes will not help matters.

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