CNNMoney: Terror futures market back in business

[RamboLiberal]

http://money.cnn.com/2003/11/17/news/terror_futures/index.htm?cnn=yes

A U.S. government plan to create a market allowing traders to bet on the likelihood of terror attacks and other events in the Middle East has been revived by the private firm that helped develop it.

The market, called the Policy Analysis Market (PAM), will allow traders to buy and sell contracts on political and economic events in the Middle East, including assassinations, the overthrow of regimes and terrorist attacks. The market is scheduled to start trading next spring.

It originally was developed and funded with the assistance of the Defense Department, where officials cited the uncanny ability of other futures markets to predict election results, weather patterns and other complex events.

Heated public criticism forced the Pentagon to end its association with the project, but its Web site, which was idle for several months, now has an announcement saying it will be open for business in March 2004.

[denverbill]

1. Yes, uncanny how the market predicted 9-11.

All that put buying on UAL and American Airlines.

That reminds me. Who bought those puts?

[Pale_Rider]

21. Probably a GOP PAC ....

... bought those puts. The last I heard is that not one has collected yet on the proceeds. Various theories exists ranging from the CIA to the Isrealis.

[BlueEyedSon]

30. Although UBL and Al Q would have had "insider info" too! nt

[abelenkpe]

37. That

is the million dollar question. And who is responsible for keeping that information from going public? Is there a way to track who buys and sells stocks in a normal situation? What is the process for finding such information? If I could have any one question answered by the 911 investigation it would be who sold that stock. Who among us profited from that horrible day?

[Pompitous_Of_Love]

2. Just goes to show...

that you can't keep a creepily immoral idea down.

[htuttle]

3. I'll put $200 on a US barracks getting bombed within 3 months

What sort of odds are they giving on that sort of thing?

If there are twice as many casualties as I predict, do I double my money?

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have fallen far below where I thought 'the bottom of the barrel' was, and are now in depths previously uncharted by humankind.

We have finally outdone the Romans.

I am so proud.

[Barrett808]

5. I have $200 says the US will indiscriminately bomb a village in N. Iraq

killing 12+ civilians, within 3 months.

Will they take that kind of bet?

[tom_paine]

8. Who would be dumb enough to take that bet?

Maybe a Freeper.

[Emboldened Chimp]

14. Odds are even on that one

[tom_paine]

7. Wait just a darned minute, there, htuttle!

You said:

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have fallen far below where I thought 'the bottom of the barrel' was, and are now in depths previously uncharted by humankind.

No we haven't. Auschwitz and Dachau were MUCH lower than anything the Imperial Family have yet done themselevs or by proxy.

Though I wouldn't bet on that statemnt being true by the 2030s and the Mad Reign of Emperor George P. Caligula...

[htuttle]

9. That's a good point

And here's another milestone of sorts.

For the very first time, having it pointed out that "Our leaders aren't quite as bad as the Nazis...yet" actually made me feel better.

That's the beauty of lowered expectations, I supppose.

[theorist]

15. What does the "P." stand for?

[Nihil]

32. Well, I stand for a P ...

... so it might just be a related term ...

[tom_paine]

41. George P. Bush -- the hunky latino Emperor

You don't remember when he was paraded out with all the other...well just a handful to be sure...minorities during the Imperial Bushevik Convention in Philly in 2000.

(perversely, this Imperial Conevntion, marking the Beginning of the End of Liberty and the Old American Republic, was conducted in it's cradle in Philadelphia)

Here's some more information on George P. Caligula, our soon-to-be Emperor...

First, one from the Party-Loyal Right-Wing Sub-Media, hitting all the ReichsTalkingPoints regarding our soon-to-be Emperor (unless the Old Republic is restored):

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,60237,00.html

Here's a time line of the Imperial Bushevik Convention denoting the Beginning of the End for the Old American Republic, brought to you by the only-slightly-less-Party-Loyal Corporate Pravda...

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/election/gop/calendar.htm

[DulceDecorum]

16. The US has killed

far more people of far more different nationalties than did Nazi Germany.

Amriyah Bomb Shelter
http://www.robinhoecker.com/iraq/view_album.php?set_albumName=album11

Moreover, the Tiger Force story is the third major war crimes revelation in the last few years to encounter apathy in the media and/or indifference and contempt in Washington.
In 1999, a team of investigative reporters from the Associated Press broke the story of a horrific massacre of hundreds of unarmed Korean civilians by U.S. troops in July 1950. It occurred at a stone bridge near the village of No Gun Ri and the unit involved was Custer's old outfit, the 7th Calvary regiment.
As one veteran told the AP, "There was lieutenant screaming like a madman, fire on everything, kill 'em all. .... Kids, there was kids out there, it didn't matter what it was, eight to eighty, blind, crippled or crazy, they shot them all." Another ex-soldier was haunted by the memory of a terrified child: "She came running toward us. You should have seen guys trying to kill that little girl. With machine guns."
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17192

And then there is Hiroshima, Afghanistan, Somalia, and so so much more.

Fernand Meyssonnier was an executioner and he comes from a family of executioners.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2278215.stm
He has gone on the record as saying that he is better than the pilots of the US Air Force because he has only killed one person at a time and he also knew his victims and which crimes they had been convicted of.

[Barrett808]

19. while I appreciate the observation that the US has killed many more...

innocents than is generally acknowledged, I'd say it's a stretch to claim that the US has killed "far more people" than did Nazi Germany.

I've occasionally tried to come up with rough figures comparing the lethality of the various big states of the late-19th/20th century. In the broadest terms, we have this ordering:

1. Soviet Union (some tens of millions; highest estimates range to 100 million);

2. Nazi Germany (upward of ten million);

3. United States (some millions).

In the case of the US, we have:

Vietnam (2-3 million Vietnamese killed)
Cambodia (some 1 million killed by strategic bombing)
Latin America (some hundreds of thousands killed by Operation Condor and related proxy forces)
Philippines (perhaps 500,000 killed)

I would welcome any better estimates people can cite.

[teryang]

29. I'd add two million for US bombings in Korea

The US Air Force destroyed virtually every structure in Korea.

[Barrett808]

35. Hmm, good point. Is there a good citation?

I collect these things...

[KoKo]

20. This is more of the kind of Frivolity of Rome than Auschwitz and Dachau,

but either direction....it's downhill from here....we need to make plans if we don't have the resources or strength to fight.

There's still time....the internet might be our savior..but I still am not sure even the Internet and instant communication about this can save us from what they've done.

[htuttle]

22. The frivolity of Rome, but with that uniquely American touch

I mean -- a Market betting directly on death and destruction. No more middlemen of defense contractors and KBR -- straight betting on the gore!

What spectacular, Star Spangled deviance!

Others might have us beat on quantity, but none of them took to directly betting on it -- with a straight face, even.

[aquart]

24. Hey, I WANT to see him appoint a horse to the Senate.

Although it will be hard to tell from the multitude of horses' asses there already.

[Ganja Ninja]

31. I’m betting a world wide terror organization will….

try to rig an election in a major western country in the fall of 2004.

[tom_paine]

4. Oh, that was a no-brainer, the Busheviks stop for NOTHING!

EVERYTHING that Emperor Bunnypants* proposed or opened that he "shut down in response to criticism" or because Congressional funding was cut or whatever is back in business!

The Shadow Government, Operation TIPS, the Office of Strategic (dis)Information, Faith-Based Funding, the list goes on and on and on...

The Imperial Family are thugs, they are disgusted with the American Experiment and they are taking it all back to the Kings who Own the World, which is THEM.

I am NEVER surprised at news like this. If you just remember we live in a Totalitarian Empire running off the fumes of the Dying Old Republic, it's an absolute no-brainer.

The Imperial Family does not take NO for an answer!

They don't have to. They know no one will stop them. It is safest to presume that every initiative the Imperial Family "withdrew" has is just laying low until it can be reopened under a new name.

The Bush Imperial Family is MUCH closer to the Ferdinand Marcos Family that it is to the Presidential Families of the Old American Republic...

They are MONSTERS. At least, for the moment, they are "kinder and gentler" than the last monsters who dismantled a REpublic in order to Threaten the World with New Order.

For the moment...

[mbperrin]

6. I guess the

bin Laden family is running short of cash!

[Paschall]

10. Odd. Charles Polks's Net Exchange's website seems to have vanished

http://www.netexchange.com

(Confirmed that link here.)

[DUreader]

13. It is even gone from the google cache

[2cents]

11. Unreal...

I'm wondering how CNBC will handle the reporting of a death market, and who will be the "experts"? Sick stuff.

[MGKrebs]

12. Here it is:

http://www.policyanalysismarket.com/

They are saying it's basically just a "survey". We shall see.

[DulceDecorum]

17. Rumsfeld said:

And then there was the office of strategic influence. You may recall that. And "oh my goodness gracious isn't that terrible, Henny Penny the sky is going to fall." I went down that next day and said fine, if you want to savage this thing fine I'll give you the corpse. There's the name. You can have the name, but I'm gonna keep doing every single thing that needs to be done and I have.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2002/11/dod111802.html

[peterh]

18. It’s pretty sick when you start laying money down….

In hopes that a tragic event occurs…..speaking of possible tragic events….in the link are the latest betting odds on the 2004 election from a UK online gaming outfit.

http://static.betshop.com/static/allc-new.asp?e_grp=2294

[lostnfound]

25. 'In hopes' or is it 'with knowledge and forethought'..

That's what really creeps me out. The thought that the PNAC crowd will take time out from busily planning the next assassination/coup/bombing/etc. to invest a bit in their own futures.

Not to mention terrorist attacks being profitable for backers of the terrorists.

[54anickel]

23. uh, aren't we in a war now based on manipulated "intelligence"? And

Check with out friends on the daily DU market trend, about manipulating the markets. Oh yeah, this is a great idea NOT!

I would have bet my bottom dollar that this would have never been revived. Guess I lost.

What the hell is going on folks? Look at these headlines today? Are the planet aligned weird or something?
Bush on bringing back jobs from Brits
Social Security privatization
Medicare Privatization
This thread

OMG, I get it, Shrub is on the campaign trail. He's finding he doesn't have a chance in hell of beating my dog, much less any of the Dem candidates, so he's out to destroy the country. "It's MY country, and if I can't have it, nobody can!!!:evilgrin:

[gardenista]

26. Is this our friend Poindexter in action?

He's a terriorist. He gets an idea and he won't let go. He'll do end-runs around anything and everything to get his way.

[Kinkistyle]

27. Look for short-selling if Democrat is predicted to win presidency

I have no doubt "terror" will be hurting if a democratic candidate gets elected into office. Look for lots of short-selling in a run-up to a democratic presidential win!

[freeforall]

28. Why is this back?

If the public protests forced this to be stopped before, what has happened that it is now going ahead?

This whole concept is deplorable, but only to be expected from a government that will probably encourage terrorist events to occur so that they can make a few bucks.


:puke:

[54anickel]

34. Bushco doesn't care about the public, much less what they think!

This is just sick.
When/if it opens, I'll be placing multiple bets on the pig ranch in Crawford and the Whitehouse in my lame attempt to manipulate the market. Where ever Shrub is for the day, that's where I'll place my bet.

[TexasMexican]

39. private

supposidly its being done by a private corporation now.

[dusty64]

33. These evil ideas

NEVER really seem to go away do they. Great fanfare is made of how they are killed only to pop back up again. They ought to be ashamed of themselves, this seems like a way to MAKE events happen so you can cash in on them later. Wonder how many bets our regime and bin laden are placing today. What ever did happen to the "investigation" of the 9/11 put options?

[kainah]

36. kick

[proud patriot]

38. WTF ?

I thought they scraped this :wtf:

[TrueStory]

40. Terrorism without violence ??????????????????

This is what we have in dictionary:

By definition TERRORISM is the use of violence to achieve political ends.

and this is what we have in the headline:

"Private firm will restart Pentagon project, but without contracts for violence, in 2004"


It's okay that a private firm thinks there is terrorism without violence, but why CNN couldn't point this out???



The next quote:

"Polk said Net Exchange would initially limit the amount of money traders could invest in the market, and that the kinds of questions the market will address should help ease concerns that the market could be manipulated by terrorists. "

Manipulating markets is illegal. Terrorism is illegal as well. However manipulating Terrorist Market is "legal". Just like in the mathematics: minus multiplied with minus results plus.