At 8:20 AM 8/7/94 -0400, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
It is perfectly feasable to track all financial transactions in the U.S., down to the "quarter for a phone call" level, without eliminating all capacity to use the data or placing more than, say, another several percent burden on the cost of all transactions. I know how to architect such a system, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one. It would be a big job, but not an impossible one, especially not with modern computer systems. A several percent burden on the economy would be devistating, but from the point of view of the bureaucrats it probably isn't such a bad thing.
Ahh. Perry to the rescue. This is even better than being technologically impossible. Economic impossibility is *just* as physical (I cite the failure of command economies like the USSR and Cuba as my evidence) as is technology, and since we're looking for a business case here, your reply comes in at the nick of time. One more point for regulatory arbitrage. That "several percent" deducted from the gross domestic product of a nation could tip the balance of it's international competitiveness, and could forgo that country's requirement for trapdoor ecash. The threat of that could be enough to shoot down the idea on this side of the American border. Parkinson's law holds that organizations like bureaucracies tend to expand to use all their available resourcess. But it's a law of biology that a parasite doesn't kill its host. Does your Forbin project above include the ability to store and retrieve *all* transactions down to a quarter phonecall permanently? ObThreadPlug: Here's my panel categories for the afternoon "where do we go" session: Chair: Famous Software/Biz Heavy or TechnoVisionary 1. Internet access provider, 2. Underwriter, 3. Financial Operations Person, 4. Regulator or Lawyer, 5. Politician. Any other ideas?? Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com) "There is no difference between someone Shipwright Development Corporation who eats too little and sees Heaven and 44 Farquhar Street someone who drinks too much and sees Boston, MA 02331 USA snakes." -- Bertrand Russell (617) 323-7923