If you were working in Silicon Valley in the 1990s, you probably have employee stock options to thank for your Porsche, your second home, and the gratitude of your spouse. If, more recently, you lost your job, you can thank stock options for that, too.

The long debate over whether companies should be forced to account for options is really a debate about what sort of high-tech industry one wants. Will honest bookkeeping tame the goblins of extreme greed that bring bubbles and busts? Or as the ardent champions of options have long maintained, will accounting for options so flatten entrepreneurial zeal as to snuff out serious investment in the Valley?