Warren Buffett, who collects a $100,000-a-year salary for running Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said Wall Street pay needs a “downside” when profits deteriorate because of reckless bets. “You have to put in something where there is downside to people who really mess up large institutions,” Buffett said in an interview conducted by the chief executive officer of Business Wire, the Berkshire subsidiary that posts corporate news releases. “Too many people have walked away from the troubles they have created for society, not just for their own institution, and they have walked away rich.”

Wall Street bonuses for 2009 may jump 40 percent to $26 billion, a year after bad bets on subprime mortgages sent financial firms to the government for bailouts, according to estimates by compensation consultant Johnson Associates Inc.

“What you have to change in Wall Street, is you have to make sure that in addition to carrots, there are sticks,” he said.

Berkshire owns The Buffalo News, and Buffett is the newspaper’s chairman.