A Beautiful Example for Wall Street

The New York Times reports:

As a number of American banks resist calls to rein in executive pay, the unthinkable is happening — at least in Switzerland, where three former officials of UBS, the troubled Swiss financial giant, said on Tuesday that they would forgo more than $27 million in compensation.

“With the involvement of the Swiss government, I realized that decisive action was required on my part,” Mr. Ospel said in a statement. [emphasis mine]

...

Asked whether he thought executives at Wall Street firms might follow the example of their counterparts in Switzerland, Mr. Jenter was skeptical.

“I would not put my money on it — not that I have much left after what the market has been doing,” Mr. Jenter said. “But it certainly seems unlikely.”

For a long time I have thought that a perfect capitalist system is one where competition is free, charity is voluntary and the educational system puts a lot of effort into teaching people to do as much charity as they can and compete fairly but vigorously. Switzerland just took a step in that direction. Swiss teens are watching and will learn a lesson. North America is lagging. Good for the Swiss.