A Plan to Trade in Death

Via an unnamed source: the AP reports on a new bird flu futures market:

Such markets have sometimes proved controversial. In 2003, the Pentagon dropped plans for a futures market that would have allowed traders to profit from accurate predictions on terrorism, assassinations and other events in the Middle East. Some lawmakers attacked the idea as immoral; U.S. Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota described it as a "plan to trade in death."
Organizers predicted the bird flu market should prove less controversial, and the New Jersey-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation cautiously agreed.
"It might be considered controversial if it's not well understood," said the philanthropy's Robert Hughes.
He noted that public health experts won't be gambling their own money, so opportunities for financial gain are extremely limited.
Also worth noting is the buy-in of ProMed, a respected disease-monitoring program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases. ProMed, with a staff of 30, collects disease updates and e-mails them to 40,000 international members, making it the largest such service in the world.