From: rah@shipwright.com (Robert Hettinga)
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 12:15:04 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: e$ Signorage
Message-ID: <v02120d00ad89c2c2811b@[199.0.65.105]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 9:35 AM 4/4/96, James Gleick (!) wrote:

> Seigniorage is actually the Government's interest income on all the
>currency in circulation. It's not obvious, but it's true, that the Fed
>collects the "float" on dollar bills you carry in your pocket, exactly as
>American Express collects the float on traveler's checks.

Ah. That makes much more sense. I've always wanted to know what to call the
interest  an ecash issuer made on the e$ he had out on the net. "None Dare
Call it Seigniorage." Sounds like a 50's movie title...

> And, I don't know, call me crazy, but $20 billion sounds like a lot of
>money to me.

I bet that's a real number. In terms of its scale in the overall Federal
Universe, to paraphrase Dirksen, "a billion here, a billion there..."

Cheers,
Bob Hettinga



-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com)
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"Reality is not optional." --Thomas Sowell
The e$ Home Page: http://thumper.vmeng.com/pub/rah/