jnycat,

I am a *big* fan of stock certificates, and a fan of paper trails in general. (It's only unbacked money paper like $ that makes me itch.) Electronic-only records are too easy to mess with. Paper records can certainly be forged and otherwise altered, but it's harder work and may be easier to detect than tweaking/deleting electronic files.

Manipulation is the name of the game these days, no?

My previous broker, who was relatively small, failed early in 2008 - fortunately, my stock positions transferred to TDMA successfully with no problem. But if we have multiple large brokerage failures, I'd be willing to bet that account transfers/liquidations/etc. will be fraught with problems - and a great opportunity for insiders with a criminal mindset?

I have ordered 5 stock certificates from TDMA this year, and have the first two in my possession. I am taking possession of my larger holdings in cert form.

Interesting point about making balance sheets look better, though if people get sufficiently paranoid about their broker, they'll transfer their account to another broker. Then, if no broker seems trustworthy, who knows what investors will do when they can't take physical possession of their shares?

Gg