Instead, the Department of Commerce and e-commerce firms are pushing for a different solution: in effect, a new system of private laws, which would avoid the requirement to abide by the laws of the countries where their customers live.

ECONOMIST: Stop signs on the web

"We discovered a flaw in the Department of Commerce's lockup system during a testing period sponsored by the department, " said a Bloomberg spokesman.

WSJ: U.S. Probed Media Firms on Data Reporting

The next day, they met for smoothies in Palo Alto and came up with the idea that became PayPal: a system of electronic payment designed to make e-commerce easy, consistent, and secure.

NEWYORKER: No Death, No Taxes

He got rich on what other taxpayers had paid for: the banking system, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury and Commerce Departments, and the judicial system, where nine-tenths of cases involve corporate law.

FORBES: Texas Entrepreneurs Tell President Obama: 'I Built This'

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports expanding the E-Verify system, which is now used by a fraction of companies, though some states require all businesses to use it to clear new hires.

WSJ: Senators in Immigration Talks Mull IDs for All Workers

Once it is built, the system will support all kinds of new uses, not just Visa Commerce, and Pascarella is coming up with creative ways to use his network.

FORBES: Companies & Strategies

Failing to appreciate how greatly the ebb and flow of commerce depends upon an efficient and safe aviation system, and possibly insensitive to the aggressive competition from foreign aerospace manufacturers seeking advances in ATC modernization, they argue there are more pressing problems that demand attention and dollars.

FORBES: The Agony and Ecstasy Of NextGen: The Air Traffic Control System Of The Future

For all the billions of dollars being spent and collected online, the code at the core of e-commerce remains highly fragmented--and that creates communication breakdowns within the overall system.

FORBES: Magazine Article