Financial regulators in Britain have imposed a rather unusual rule on the bosses of big banks. Starting next year, any guaranteed bonus of top executives could be delayed 10 years if their banks are under investigation for wrongdoing. The main purpose of this “clawback” rule is to hold bankers accountable for harmful risk-taking and to restore public trust in financial institutions. Yet officials also hope for a much larger benefit: more long-term decision-making not only by banks but by all corporations, to build a stronger economy for future generations.

　　“Short-termism” or the desire for quick profits, has worsened in publicly traded companies, says the Bank of England’s top economist, Andrew Haldane. He quotes a giant of classical economics, Alfred Marshall, in describing this financial impatience as acting like “children who pick the plums out of their pudding to eat them at once” rather than putting them aside to be eaten last.

　　The average time for holding a stock in both the United States and Britain, he notes, has dropped from seven years to seven months in recent decades. Transient investors, who demand high quarterly profits from companies, can hinder a firm’s efforts to invest in long-term research or to build up customer loyalty. This has been dubbed “quarterly capitalism”.

　　In addition, new digital technologies have allowed more rapid trading of equities, quicker use of information, and thus shorter attention spans in financial markets. “There seems to be a predominance of short-term thinking at the expense of long-term investing,” said Commissioner Daniel Gallagher of the US Securities and Exchange Commission in a speech this week.

　　In the US, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has pushed most public companies to defer performance bonuses for senior executives by about a year, slightly helping reduce “short-termism”. In its latest survey of CEO pay, The Wall Street Journal finds that “a substantial part” of executive pay is now tied to performance.

　　Much more could be done to encourage “long-termism”, such as changes in the tax code and quicker disclosure of stock acquisitions. In France, shareholders who hold onto a company investment for at least two years can sometimes earn more voting rights in a company.

    Within companies, the right compensation design can provide incentives for executives to think beyond their own time at the company and on behalf of all stakeholders. Britain’s new rule is a reminder to bankers that society has an interest in their performance, not just for the short term but for the long term.

答案精析：根据题干中的Alfred Marshall可定位至文章第二段第二句。由定位句可知，经济学家艾尔弗雷德·马歇尔将这种急躁的经济行为描述为“孩子把布丁中的李子拿出来，然后马上吃掉”，而不是放到最后吃。引用这段话是为了描述this financial impatience，而this指代上文。由此可推断出，艾尔弗雷德·马歇尔的言论是为了证明经济活动存在“短期主义”（short-termism）思想，因此选择D项。

错项排除：文章未提及创造快速获利的条件和上市公司的稳固结构，因此排除A、C两项。文章第二段第二句虽然提及this financial impatience（急躁的经济行为），但并不是政府在决策上的急躁，因此排除B项。

长难句分析：He quotes a giant of classical economics, Alfred Marshall, in describing this financial impatience as acting like “children who pick the plums out of their pudding to eat them at once” rather than putting them aside to be eaten last.

本句的主干为He quotes a giant of classical economics。Alfred Marshall是a giant of classical economics的同位语。who至句末为修饰children的定语。

句意为：他引用古典经济学巨人艾尔弗雷德·马歇尔的话，这种金融上的不耐烦行为就像是“孩子把布丁中的李子拿出来，然后马上吃掉”，而不是放在一边，留到最后吃。