Wall St. Sets Its Greedy Eyes on Shaking the Silver out of Hollywood

[no_hypocrisy]

If you thought the mortgage-backed securities and other complex financial instruments that crashed the economy were risky, you’ll love Wall Street’s latest brainwave: a new financial market in which players can gamble on whether upcoming Hollywood movies will be blockbusters or bombs.

For years, Cantor Fitzgerald, a Wall Street investment firm, has been operating the "Hollywood Stock Exchange," a fake-money game in which players trade "stocks" to bet on how films will do at the box office. Now Cantor could soon get government permission to make a real-money version of the game—a market in which players can gamble on the success or failure of, say, Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Critics are worried this new market could be vulnerable to insider trading and create bizarre incentives for moviemakers—and that it will also enlarge the risky family of financial products that helped trigger the economic crisis.

"This is such a bad idea on so many levels," says Lynn Stout, a law professor at UCLA and an expert in derivatives, the category of financial instruments that includes Cantor's proposed box office futures. "What they want to do is basically open up a casino for people who want to make money for predicting the next blockbuster."



http://www.alternet.org/economy/145657/wall_st._sets_its_greedy_eyes_on_shaking_the_silver_out_of_hollywood

[Chulanowa]

1. Wow. You mean there's a way to add MORE tawdry commercialism to Hollywood?

I'm actually impressed that they managed to find a way to make the American film industry even shittier. I'd like to meet the team of engineers and quantum physicists who are no doubt responsible for this massive breakthrough!

[Uben]

2. You can bet.......

...if Wall Street wants it, it's rigged so they can make a ton of money. Financiers are constantly looking for ways to bilk the public out of their money.....it's what they do! And, I suppose anyone stupid enough to take their gambles deserves to lose their money, but why do our congressmen allow such things? The only answer is, they are making money off of it, too, via contributions, which is the fatal flaw in our political system.

Can't we find one honest congress-critter who will stand up and point a finger at the beast?

[aquart]

3. They get paid buying or selling. They need you to trade.

[FarCenter]

4. Don't short "Springtime for Hitler"