Joe Lieberman: “I rise in strong support of stock option reforms, and propose legislation that will make stock options, a powerful tool…”

“I rise in strong support of stock option reforms, and propose legislation that will make stock options, a powerful tool in the democratization of capitalism, even more effective as an incentive to spur innovation and create wealth. The waves of corporate abuse that our economy has suffered over the past ten months have been devastating to so many employees, shareholders, and families across America. The investments that people have counted upon to safeguard their retirement, send their children to college, buy a home, start a business-trillions of dollars have gone up in smoke, turned to ash while, for a few executives, those misfortunes turned to cash. That's maddening, as a result, the most productive economy in the world-in the history of the world-has been scarred. The American corporation, a great institution of democratic capitalism in which the public owns the company, has been stained. Potentially empowering innovations that enable individual investment, like the 401-k account, have been skewered. Today, I want to talk about another fundamentally decent idea that has been dragged into the quicksand of corporate corruption: stock options. We've discovered over the last ten months that too many companies and executives have been misusing and abusing them. In far too many cases, options have been turned into mere feed in the corporate trough by the greed of corporate executives. Stock options are a hammer. They can be used well or used poorly.”