Stock Option Abuses

“Outgoing SEC Chief Urges Greater Scrutiny of Stock Option Grants” [Personal Finance, Jan. 21] touched a sore spot in my financial awareness.

For a long time I have been outraged at the abusive dealings in which members of the board of corporations get vast amounts of stock options, in addition to their generous salaries, for services that are not so remarkable, and which are precisely what they were hired to do.

Such stock options necessarily water down the value of stock for shareholders and make their right to representation in the company ludicrous. No matter how many of us vote, the board itself, as a block owning so many shares, outnumbers the shareholder voting.

The insiders’ greed and the lack of ethics in the way these salaries and bonuses are given to each other not only go against shareholders’ interests but gravely undermine public confidence in the SEC and major stock exchanges.

I’m glad outgoing SEC chief Arthur Levitt is advocating changes in the rules at the major stock exchanges. The public should rally around Mr. Levitt’s concerns in favor of shareholders.

STELLA JOHNSON

Irvine