Originally Posted by Snake Doctor

Interesting tidbit about that.

CEO's started demanding payment in stock options when capital gains taxes were cut....because exercising stock options resulted in capital gains tax at a much lower rate than income tax.

This is one of the big reasons why republicans can (and constantly do) claim that revenue from capital gains taxes increased when the rate was lowered.
Of course what they don't realize is that if we lowered taxes for everyone with the name "Smith", tax revenues from people named Smith would increase dramatically....because lots of people would change their name.

Anyhoo....the point I wanted to make was that capital gains taxes being so low created a double whammy because now not only were CEO's paying much less in taxes, but it was in their best interest to do absolutely anything to make their stock price go up....be that cooking the books or giving out mortgages to people who couldn't afford the payments.