Completely Rational Exuberance

Ever since the whole subprime housing market pyramid scheme investment strategy went completely to shit, Wall Street has been hunting for the Next Big Fleece. According to Nick Baumann at Mother Jones, they seem to have found it.

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.

Pure brilliance. We really are only a year or two away from Sam Waterston interrupting football games with overtures about how you should, "Just hand your money over to us, no questions asked. We'll never give it back, but somehow that will make you more money."

For my money, the best reaction to this plan comes here, from someone who seems genuinely pissed about even having to address it:

"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.

On the other hand, I heard that Jim Cramer is really high on the Daredevil reboot.