[jjoonathan]

No, the investors got hit by the steamroller. Management, who knew exactly what they were doing, did not lose their earnings. Future earnings? Some of these were Lehman execs -- their ability to land a position in SVB is proof that they probably did not sacrifice future earnings.

> Earning a nice bonus last year

Why do you think this was limited to last year? I suspect they made risky moves again and again and again and got paid out again and again and again.

[digitaltrees]

This is so out of touch with the reality of people. No one is knowingly taking risk that will bankrupt their company for a few million dollars in bonus when they can instead have a 10 or 20 year career where even 25% of that bonus with accrue to much more value. Further, their bonus were stock, and every single executive at SVB lost most of their equity which was paid over years and locked up as options.

Edit: after reading this article posted by lordfrito below I stand corrected. SVB executives knew the risk and took it anyway. But not for personal gain but to maximize firm value as it allowed higher profit which increased the valuation (so yes they benefited personally, but to a greater extent than just a few million in bonuses).

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-13/svb-failu...