Amazing to believe, but a sharp-eyed reader has found that the Policy Analysis Market -- that Pentagon-funded and Pointexder-led futures market -- will
reopen in March.
You remember this particular DARPA project:
The program is called the Policy Analysis Market. DARPA said it was part of a research effort "to investigate the broadest possible set of new ways to prevent terrorist attacks."
Traders would have bought and sold futures contracts -- just like energy traders do now in betting on the future price of oil. But the contracts in this case would have been based on what might happen in the Middle East in terms of economics, civil and military affairs or specific events, such as terrorist attacks.
Holders of a futures contract that came true would have collected the proceeds of traders who put money into the market but predicted wrong.
A graphic on the market's Web page Monday showed hypothetical futures contracts in which investors could trade on the likelihood that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would be assassinated or Jordanian King Abdullah II would be overthrown. Although the website described the Policy Analysis Market as a Middle East market, the graphic also included the possibility of a North Korea missile attack.
The announcement at the Policy Analysis Market website now brags that it will reopen "free of government involvement."
The idea is still grotesque, and the site would still allow terrorists to make money off their own attacks. Bet on an attack, conduct the attack, cash the check. Beyond ridiculous.
Who is behind the new site? The domain is registered to Net Exchange, which originally developed the market with Pentagon funding. So who is funding the market now?
I'm not a journalist. But someone should find out.