单选题 The Obama administration and the Federal Reserve launched a two-pronged campaign to crack down on pay practices across the financial system Thursday, marking an unprecedented foray into the private sector by the federal government on a matter that traditionally has been left to veiled board room discussions. President Obama"s pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, announced drastic cuts in pay for 175 top executives at seven companies that received hundreds of billions of dollars worth of federal bailout money during the financial crisis. At a news conference at the Treasury Department, Feinberg said he hoped the new pay structures—which tie compensation at the firms to their long-term performance and reduces the cash salary some executives receive by 90 percent—would serve as a model for Wall Street and corporate America. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve issued new guidelines that will restrict pay practices at all banks to prevent them from paying employees in ways that could endanger the firms" long-term financial health. Unlike Feinberg"s plan, the Fed"s guidance would cover all banks, even those that never received a bailout as well as U. S. subsidiaries of foreign companies. "Compensation practices at some banking organizations have led to misaligned incentives and excessive risk-talking, contributing to bank losses and financial instability, "Feb Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said. "The Federal Reserve is working to ensure that compensation packages appropriately tie rewards to long-term performance. " The two moves represent Washington"s most dramatic push to reform executive compensation on Wall Street. The issue has long been controversial, but blew up into a firestorm in March when it was revealed American International Group, the recipient of a $180 billion bailout package, was paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to a trading division that nearly brought the company and the financial system to its knees. Unlike Feinberg"s plan, however, the guidelines do not cap the amount of compensation that banks can give their employees, nor do they prohibit any particular pay practices. Rather, the effort requires that banks ensure that their pay practices do not encourage executives, traders, or other employees to take irresponsible risks, such as by offering huge bonuses for making bets without regard to the risks that such bets could lose money in the long term. "Incentive compensation practices in the financial industry were one of many factors contributing to the financial crisis, " the proposed guidance said. "Banking organizations too often rewarded employees for increasing the firm"s revenue or short-term profit without adequate recognition of the risks the employees" activities posed to the firm. " The Fed, at his stage, did not propose one-size-fits-all guidelines for compensation, such as requiring that some fixed percentage of bonus pay to senior executives be deferred or come in the form of stock, rather than cash. Rather, the guidelines call for pay packages that balance risks and rewards, that judge performance over longer time horizons and that de-emphasize short-term performance. The pay issue has been particularly thorny for the Obama administration. Feinberg said he had to find a way to protect taxpayer interests and get the money paid back while not stripping the companies" ability to retain talented workers. Feinberg said his review of pay at the firms showed the amount of guaranteed cash paid to the top 25 employees was too high, so he shifted significant amounts to stock that can only be sold in one-third installments beginning in 2011.

单选题 In the campaign to crack down on pay practices across the financial system, one thing both the Administration and the Fed did, among others, was that they______.

单选题 The causes behind the two-pronged campaign were perhaps many, but the immediate one was that______.

单选题 The Obama administration and the Federal Reserve took their moves separately. The following were some of the moves taken except______.

单选题 The moves the Obama administration took boiled down to

单选题 The Fed"s effort was separate from the Obama administration to dramatically reduce compensation for top executives at the companies that had received government bailouts. Compared with the administration"s actions, ______.