As this report in CFO.com suggests, there seems to be something in the water at the SEC that turns otherwise experienced and competent SEC Chairmen into politically tone deaf bureaucrats. After years of growing pressure to change the regime of stock options, and at the very point that shareholder activists succeed in ousting a major CEO over excessive pay (Home Depot’s Bob Nardelli), and just as Congressman Barney Frank takes over as head of the House committee that oversees his agency, the SEC’s Chris Cox decides to give public companies a free pass that allows them to disclose stock option the way Enron reported its earnings from off balance sheet entities!

The SEC Stirs the Pot on Executive Comp – – CFO.com