Is the Pentagon getting into the futures market?
Blue skies thinking is thriving at the Pentagon where officials plan to start an online futures trading market to help it anticipate terrorist attacks and assassinations. The initiative, called the Policy Analysis Market (Pam), will allow traders to place bets on, for example, a coup in Jordan or a biological attack on Israel. Critics say the concept, described by the Pentagon as a “market for the future of the Middle East,” is a “sick idea”. But the Pentagon insists that futures markets have proved themselves good at predicting election results and are often better than expert opinions.
