An economic analysis would indeed be useful, especially if it led to poll-type question like "Would you be willing to pay $100 extra for a cellular phone to get secure communications that allowed government wiretaps?" Or as a sound bite: "At $100M+ a year, consumers and businesses are subsidizing government wiretapping at the minimum cost of $100,000 for each wiretap." At that price, the government might as well give $100k to the suspects under the condition that they stop doing whatever is considered illegal. ;^) Paul E. Baclace peb@procase.com