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The US and France可定位至文章第五、六段。第五段中提及许多美国企业延迟一年左右发放高管的绩效津贴，继而略微缓解“短期主义”盛行的局面。第六段中提到，在法国，公司中持股两年以上的人拥有更多的选票权。由此可推断出美国和法国的案例说明了两国都在以不同的方式促进长期主义。第六段第一句Much more could be done to encourage “long-termism,” such as…承上启下，说明促进“长期主义”还有很多方式，因此选择C项。

错项排除：文章第五段中提及slightly helping reduce “short-termism”，是为了说明延缓发放高管绩效津贴可以缓解“短期主义”盛行的局面，并未说明是为了预防“短期主义”遇到的阻碍和短期主义思想的盛行，因此排除A、C项。文章第五、六段未说明长期主义思想的重要性，因此排除B项。