Whatever the merits of options may be, their accounting treatment is outrageous. Think for a moment of [the hundreds of millions] we spend for advertising at GEICO [each] year. Suppose that instead of paying cash for our ads, we paid the media in ten-year, at-the-market Berkshire options. Would anyone then care to argue that Berkshire had not borne a cost for advertising, or should not be charged this cost on its books?
