Financial Crisis - addressing the root cause

The main issue with the current financial crisis is short-termism. A majority of financial institutions are interested in the next quarter or next year at the furthest. Which necessitates opportunism at the cost of sustainability. One measure that will go to help address the financial crisis is to look at the issue of bank bonuses. The metric for a bonus should be was this a wise investment which also means was this an ethical investment. The only way to understand if an investment was a good one is with hind-sight which means that the bonuses should be retrospective not over the past year, but over the past 2 years at the minimum. At this point one can determine the value of the investment. Such a measure would turn the financiers focus from short-termism into investment (which is where they should be). It is up to the investors that provide the funds to the financial institutions to demand this. That means it's up to us to demand our pension funds, banks etc make ethical, sustainable investments and not short-term gains (that may result in a quarter hike in our returns) that in the long run prove to be catastrophic. There are some that are thinking this way.