Re: e$: Geodesic Securities Markets

[Sandy Sandfort <sandfort@crl.com>]

C'punks,

On Wed, 22 Jun 1994, Robert Hettinga wrote:

> . . . physical delivery is becoming more and more
> obsolete. That makes sense. Once a certificate is put into the vault at
> DTC, it usually never leaves.  It might as well not be there at all.
> Changes in ownership are reflected by offseting book entries. Ah, the
> wonders of double-entry bookeeping.
> 
> Oddly enough, an e$ certification scheme reverses that paradigm. The book
> entries disapear, the certificates proliferate, and the clearinghouse
> becomes a referee, "blessing" the trade.

I don't think so.  The book entries still exist.  The book is the only 
place securities ever really exist.  E$ certificates--and even physical 
certificates--are nothing more than receipts evidencing ownership as 
defined by the book entry.  Remember, securities are "intangible" assets 
by definition.  (Ditto for dollars, yen, pounds and francs, by the way.)


 S a n d y