Payment in Kind - bonuses and CDO

According to the media one of the fundamental causes of the credit crunch and the ensuing financial problems was the 'collateralised debt obligation' (if I've got the right expansion of the abbreviation CDO) and its even more obscure financial instruments the CDO² and the CDO³. Yes, sub-prime mortgages were a problem but at least people knew what their value was (zero or negative since it was unlikely that they could be repaid).  However CDO`s were imponderable, and rather than assuming that the value was unknown it seems to have been taken at face-value.

This is just another instance of a common type of deal on the internet (and in life).  You are sold something with promised potential in exchange for something of actual value (i.e. you pay hard cash for a promise).  The hard cash you part with can be banked but the promise is ... well, just warm wet air.

So perhaps the larger bonuses could be paid in CDOs.  If they are such a good thing and have actual value then they are a valuable bonus.  If they are worth less than the ink use by the printer used to list them, then they are a suitable bonus.  At the very least it would focus the minds of the people supposedly supervising the banking operation to ensure that what they are buying aren't castles built on clouds.