re an open letter to mr clinton in article vkcsbl mbeckman mbeckman com mbeckman mbeckman com writes as an economist i m sure you can see the flaws in this logic if the naive market is flooded with proprietary but weak encryption then truly strong encryption will be unable to compete this is true for the mass market but not for those who need strong crypto and are willing to pay the price after all one can buy strong crypto today if one is willing to spend enough thus the concern is not economic the issue most worth worrying about is that after the system takes hold the government will outlaw other systems and something voluntary will become the only system available that is a political not an economic issue as a separate matter you may be making an implied advocacy for cheap secure crypto for everyone it s true that the clipper chip would probably prevent that except via clipper but cheap secure crypto for everyone is a political discussion not an economic one and the whole point of clipper is to resolve that political policy tension between securing legitimate communications and tapping the crooks david sternlight great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of our information errors and omissions excepted
