“If stock options aren’t a form of compensation, what are they? If compensation isn’t an expense, what is it? And, if expenses shouldn’t go into the calculation of earnings, where in the world do they go?” – Warren Buffett, CEO, Berkshire Hathaway

“Those who argue against including options within the standard accounting frameworks try to have it both ways: They believe that market participants are smart enough to read through dozens of footnotes to figure out the implications of options for the value of their shares, but so dumb that they would be misled by the more accurate numbers that would be provided under the reform proposals, and unable to redo the calculations themselves.” – Joseph E. Stiglitz, Professor of Economics at Columbia and winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics.

“Money may not flow out of company coffers when options are granted, but real costs are incurred…the argument that expensing stock options might hurt share prices was akin to complaining that investors would pay less for shares if they knew that profits were inflated” – Arthur Levitt, former Securities and Exchange Chairman

“Virtually every corporate disaster that has struck in recent years has had a stock option component…Stock option abuses have damaged investor confidence in American business,” – Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.)

“To assume that options grants are not an expense is to assume the real resources that contributed to the creation of the value of output were free. Surely the existing shareholders who granted the options to employees do not consider the potential dilution of their share in the market capitalization of their corporation as having no cost to them,” –Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve Chairman

“The Financial Accounting Standards Board has put itself on the line and said there's an expense attached to stock options, I am waiting restlessly for this to happen.'' – William H. Donaldosn, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman

"I can't understand how executives can make tens of millions of dollars on options the same year the company goes bankrupt,” – Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve Chairman