From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1996 12:11:25 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: whitehouse web incident, viva la web revolution
In-Reply-To: <199606051821.OAA12450@jekyll.piermont.com>
Message-ID: <v03006f19addcd0b35037@[199.0.65.105]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 4:18 PM -0400 6/5/96, hallam@Etna.ai.mit.edu wrote:

> ObCrypto: Perry is only able to make allegations because the
> financial markets are to a degree open. If anoymous cash takes
> off and anonymous derivatives follow won't it make it easier to
> conceal the type of dealings Perry alledges?

Ah. Another bugbear emerges from the monster closet... <sfx: CREEEAAAAAK!!!!>

Don't worry, Phill!

I've put Jell-O all over the kitchen floor, and set the sofa on fire, too!

That should hold it off until you can get under the magic covers!


lub-DUB. lub-DUB. lub-DUB. lub-DUB. lub-DUB. ...



I suppose it depends on what you call "open", eh, Phill?

If by "open", you mean financial markets where, as Milton Freedman says,
each new regulation raises the cost of entry and protects the surviving
firms by killing their smaller competion with red tape, then we have "open"
markets.

If by "open", you mean that people can't purchase the attention of their
favorite politician fair and square, without having to play zero-sum games
with barnyard animals, then we have "open" markets. ;-).

If by "open", you mean capital markets where we have industrial economies
of scale because they're based on industrial communications technology, and
thus no competition at all, then we have "open" markets.

If by "open", you mean we have an ever-decreasing noose of surveillance,
both by nation-states and by large government-created (see Fredman, above)
oligopolies, then we have "open" markets.


Nothing personal, Phill, but it does seem like it's more a question of what
you're afraid of, than what *is*, right?


Cheers,
Bob Hettinga



Now, where exactly *did* I put that chicken heart, anyway...

lub-DUB. lub-DUB. lub-DUB. lub-DUB. lub-DUB. ...


-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com)
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"If they could 'just pass a few more laws',
  we would all be criminals."    --Vinnie Moscaritolo
The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/