Stock options are supposed to incent top executives to do right by all shareholders. And they are often used to that end. However, there are some iffy uses. A new report notes that the top five executives at the 10 financial institutions that took the biggest taxpayer bailouts have received a big bump in the value of their stock options--nearly $90 million, according to Reuters. 

If the executives were new and hired after the stock had tanked, to lead a turnaround. They ought to benefit from a low strike price, but let's say the executive had ridden the stock tone lows, and then got a big batch of options at a very low strike price. That doesn't seem right. I think we'd have to go case by case to see if a specific executive deserves his or her options grants. 

For more:
- here's the Reuters article

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