![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.culinaryschool.ch\/images\/ShipLakeLucerne.jpg\" "\\"Lake")
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The new head of UBS is apparently faced with the same problems that were faced by the old head of UBS.\u00a0 One of the biggies is:\u00a0 how do you remain competitive (and solvent) as a bank without being competitive as an employer?\u00a0 Answer:\u00a0 you can’t.\u00a0 Another problem, then:\u00a0 how do you remain competitive as an employer without upsetting the public?<\/p>\n
As in the U.S., the Swiss bank gave up its right to pay high bonuses when it got into trouble and accepted a bailout from their government, which basically capped the bonuses.\u00a0 The Swiss people, kindly and educated as they are, still suffer from the mob’s envy of the highly paid<\/a>.\u00a0 UBS had a choice between being competitive or making the public happy, and they chose survival<\/a>.<\/p>\n The \u201cexceptional\u201d salary increases \u201cwere necessary to safeguard our profitable business areas and to secure their success,\u201d Gruebel said. \u201cFollowing significant cuts in variable compensation, we had fallen well behind the market in certain areas, and that is unsustainable in the long run.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Hmm.\u00a0 Companies being compelled to dramatically raise salaries when they were constrained from paying bonuses…who could have predicted that?<\/p>\n By the way, have you noticed that whenever Bloomberg (the same can be said for the WSJ) have multiple stories about a subject, they always start with the part about executive compensation?<\/p>\n