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Re: PAM London Times, July 29 Fury over bets on terror project The Pentagon is setting up a commodity market-style trading system in which investors would be able to bet on political and economic events in the Middle East. This would include the likelihood of assassinations and terrorist attacks. But two Democratic senators said they wanted the project stopped before investors began registering this week. ----- Original Message ----- From: "ppg" <ppg@nyc.rr.com> To: <casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk> Sent: Monday, July 28, 2003 10:51 PM Subject: [casi] "Invest in Mideast futures" Look around this site- seems PAM is a sophisticated program for Mideast war profiteers.. http://www.policyanalysismarket.org/pam_concept.htm "Concept Overview Analysts often use prices from various markets as indicators of potential events. The use of petroleum futures contract prices by analysts of the Middle East is a classic example. The Policy Analysis Market (PAM) refines this approach by trading futures contracts that deal with underlying fundamentals of relevance to the Middle East. Initially, PAM will focus on the economic, civil, and military futures of Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey and the impact of U.S. involvement with each. [Click here for a summary of PAM futures contracts] The contracts traded on PAM will be based on objective data and observable events. These contracts will be valuable because traders who are registered with PAM will use their money to acquire contracts. A PAM trader who believes that the price of a specific futures contract under-predicts the future status of the issue on which it is based can attempt to profit from his belief by buying the contract. The converse holds for a trader who believes the price is an over-prediction – she can be a seller of the contract. This price discovery process, with the prospect of profit and at pain of loss, is at the core of a market’s predictive power. The issues represented by PAM contracts may be interrelated; for example, the economic health of a country may affect civil stability in the country and the disposition of one country’s military may affect the disposition of another country’s military. The trading process at the heart of PAM allows traders to structure combinations of futures contracts. Such combinations represent predictions about interrelated issues that the trader has knowledge of and thus may be able to make money on through PAM. Trading these trader-structured derivatives results in a substantial refinement in predictive power. ... ... Trader registration will open on August 1, 2003..." Surf the site. (Remember the 'South Sea Bubble'?) Read the MSNBC news story: http://www.msnbc.com/news/945269.asp?0sl=-22 Can a ‘terror futures market’ work? Defense Dept. project aims to let ‘investors’ bet on events _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk