“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” — Teddy Roosevelt The blockchain community is hard at work, doing work that’s worth doing. I’m elated to join it full-time! Recently I became president of Symbiont and chairman…

No, You Don’t Own Your Securities That’s right. You think you own securities in your brokerage account, but you don’t. A company you’ve probably never heard of, called Cede & Co., is the official owner of >99% of the securities outstanding in the U.S. What’s in your brokerage account is probably an I.O.U. See the fine print. This is a feature of U.S. capital markets that arose for historical (not nefarious) reasons. But those reasons long ago faded, and yet this vestige of yesteryear’s market structure remains. Were we to create a new market structure from scratch, it would look nothing like it does today.

Republished with permission from the June 2016 edition of the Lara-Murphy Report, a subscription newsletter available here. Dr. Bob Murphy, who conducted the interview, is a truly gifted teacher and one of my favorite economics professors. During my tour of alternative economic schools of thought after the financial crisis, it…

2016 seems to be the year of “enterprise blockchain.” Last year, it was financial institutions that awakened to the potential of blockchain technology to cut costs and reduce counterparty risk. This year, it’s companies outside of the financial sector. …

The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) released its annual report on the health of the U.S. financial system on June 21, 2016. …

Dear Corporate Pension Plan Sponsors, With the first quarter of 2016 ending, the agenda of corporate treasurers has four items pertaining to the defined-benefit pension plans you sponsor: (1) another decline in funded status, (2) higher PBGC premiums starting to bite, (3) return of debt-funded pension contributions in the market…

Forced into time off, I accepted a college pal’s invitation to travel the world’s longest railway, the fabled Trans-Siberian Express. In February! Siberia…in the dead of winter…when Siberia is…well…Siberian. Russia is a great culture, with a rich history of contributions to science, math and the arts, and its natural resources…

Blockchains = game changer. Imagine with me, as you read this post. I predict people will use blockchain technology to regain control of our online identities and the security of our personal data. Companies will use it to speed up cash conversion cycles and optimize supply chains — and to…

Financial industry regulators around the world are beginning to embrace the reality that blockchain technology will help them do their jobs, as well they should. I write this post as a 22-year veteran of Wall Street who is passionate about market structure, and who has seen the blockchain space from…