I try not to get into politics if I can help it, but sometimes, stuff comes up that just makes a person go "What the f%$# is the US government thinking??". This (http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20030728_1880.html) would be one of those times.

terrorist a:hey what should our next target be?

terrorist b: well look the futures market doesn't think we'll ever hit that place!

terrorist a: okay then that's our next target!



i agree with you elara i just don't understand why anyone would think that is a good idea.:confused:

Initially I thought it was an April Fools joke, then I checked the calendar. It's unbelievable, doubly so for a government agency to propose it.

I read it on Foxnews about an hour ago and I thought it was an April fools joke as well.

It is quite possibly the dumbest thing I have ever heard of.

Imagine if the Arabs (or whoever) did the same thing to us. They buy stock in the American Atrocities Market, have some of there henchmen go commit the act and then collect on the stock.

How would you like a futures market where an stock such as "Bombing of the Sears Tower in the Next Six Months" was going for $100/share and rising?

Middle East Arabs et al. could do a much better terrorist market than us so let's not give them the idea... ooops, already did.

-Mr. Wigggles

I think Im going to throw up...:mad:

hmmmmmmmmmmm, intriguing.
pretty stupid, could work though, but only after many years and only on a cylcic basis, much like the stock market.

apparently the idea is to find long-term cyclic trends, too bad it wouldnt do anything cause there'd be no repeats in the pattern so an exact prediction could never be made(chaos theory)


all in all, a pretty stupid idea

edit:
forgot to add this
the British used to do someting along these linse in the 1600s-1700s i think it was. theyd have large bets on insurance things, like "ill bet you 10000 pounds this ship sinks" or something like that, and some of them were actually rigging things and such, it was eventaully outlawed i beleive, but as its 330am, i cant remember that much......at least thats the excuse im using!;)
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This is how things work:

1. Junior official makes proposal, dumb one in this case.
2. Junior official writes up proposal and sends it to boss.
3. Mid-level official who saw proposal first leaks to media or Congress because he's opposed.
4. Member of opposition then makes a big stink about it to get press attention for himself.

Never accept what comes out of politicians or the media as the whole truth, everyone has an agenda.

Washington D.C., politicians, press and Pentagon Commandos included, is a black hole of common sense.

Must also realise that since 9/11 the Pentagon will LOOK at all ideas, that is not the same as actually making them part of operations. Just means they keep an open mind.

"part of a research effort "to investigate the broadest possible set of new ways to prevent terrorist attacks."

It seems to me that this is a bunch of gov't nitwits who don't understand how the market works. Futures trading works best with an open and public exchange of information and terrorists operate on a closed and private exchange of information. They're really comparing apples and orangutans.

Well the good new is that the plan has been scraped. Here (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=6&u=/ap/20030729/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/terror_market_25) is a link.

Originally posted by ggreen29
Futures trading works best with an open and public exchange of information and terrorists operate on a closed and private exchange of information.

...although it's been scrapped, it's still a very intriguining idea: does the cost from hiring spies/mercinaries/malitia to investigate, infiltrate and inform my futures company less than the potential benefit in the market??
of course, this would take a TON of money: in the right circumstances (ie: US isn't superpower and is hated by every region of the world) where safety was nearly worth any cost, this market could be feasible, as not only the market profits would be the benefit but also the safety aspect, where this information could be of serious importance to US defence... but then again, because of the public nature of such a market, this would introduce all sorts of problems about indirectly informing those threatening the US with what sorts of probable actions might be taken against them... two edged sword, in an improbable market, with a very morbid theme, but still an interesting idea.

The whole idea was almost as ridiculous as McCarthyism.

lol

either way, it could only work after 20 years or more, and even then it would be incredibly sketchy
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lol

either way, it could only work after 20 years or more, and even then it would be incredibly sketchy


at its height of functionality it could "work" about 100 times worse than social security and medicare :)

"Aww crap, time is runnin out for my 'today somebody's gonna bomb the sears tower' ticket"

"Hey, we have some extra C4 laying around...we can make it to Chicago by 11pm"

The idea was canned and Poindexter is "resigning" partially because of it:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,93446,00.html

-Mr. Wigggles