In the NL. recipients have to pay income tax on stock options as soon as they are bestowed. But intense competition from option-rich firms abroad are starting to change that climate.

To Juan Villalonga, the arrangement must have seemed fair enough. Shortly after taking over as head of the Spanish telecommunications firm Telefonica in February 1997, he awarded the company’s 100 top executives–including himself–a bushel of potentially lucrative stock options that could be cashed out after three years. With…

The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, bustling center of Dutch financial life, stopped all trading last week. The reason for the stoppage dated back to the war.

The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, bustling center of Dutch financial life, stopped all trading last week. Like so many of Europe’s troubles, the reason for the stoppage dated back to the war. When the Germans overran The Netherlands in 1940, they helped themselves to a giant Dutch treat: all Jewish-owned…