[extropy-chat] Middle East futures market returns

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

>From <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2003/11/17/news/terror_futures/?cnn=yes">CNN Money</a> - A shelved Pentagon plan to create a market allowing traders to bet on the likelihood of events in the Middle East has been revived by the private firm that helped develop it. But the new version of the Policy Analysis Market (PAM) will not include any securities based on forecasts of violent events such as assassinations or terror attacks, in an effort to avoid the kind of criticism that sank the project this summer. CNN/Money incorrectly reported Monday that the market would be much like the one that was backed by the Defense Department, which would have allowed traders to create contracts for, say, whether Yasser Arafat would be assassinated. But subsequent e-mail correspondence with Charles Polk, president of San Diego-based Net Exchange, the company trying to relaunch the market, made it clear that traders won't be able to create contracts for such events. The possibility of such a contract under the first plan ignited a political firestorm that forced the Pentagon to drop its support for the market. See also <a href="http://www.policyanalysismarket.com/">www.policyanalysismarket.com/</a>