Editing Policy Analysis Market (section)

== Opposition ==

At a July 28, 2003, press conference, [[United States Senate|US Senators]] [[Byron L. Dorgan]] ([[United States Democratic Party|D]]-[[North Dakota|ND]]) and [[Ron Wyden]] (D-[[Oregon|OR]]) claimed that PAM would allow trading in such events as {{lang|fr|[[Coup d'état|coups d'états]]}}, assassinations, and terrorist attacks, due to such events appearing on interface pictures on the project website. "On the web site, as a backdrop to bold text, were faint background sample screens. In a small (less than 2 percent) section of two such screens, Polk had included as colorful examples of possible miscellaneous items an assassination of Yasser Arafat, a missile attack by North Korea, and the overthrow of the king of Jordan."<ref name=hanson2007>{{cite journal |last1=Hanson |first1=Robin |title=The Policy Analysis Market (A Thwarted Experiment in the Use of Prediction Markets for Public Policy) |journal=Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization |date=August 2007 |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=73–88 |doi=10.1162/itgg.2007.2.3.73|s2cid=57563194 |doi-access=free |url=http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/itgg.2007.2.3.73 }}</ref>

They denounced the idea, with Wyden stating, "The idea of a federal betting parlor on atrocities and terrorism is ridiculous and it's grotesque", while Dorgan called it "useless, offensive and unbelievably stupid".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Newton |title=Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity: Total Information Awareness |date=7 April 2015 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-17244-6 |page=146 |edition=Second |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zSv3BwAAQBAJ |access-date=17 November 2022 |language=en |chapter=6}}</ref> Other critics offered similar outrage. Within less than a day, [[the Pentagon]] announced the cancellation of PAM, and by the end of the week [[John Poindexter]], head of the DARPA unit responsible for developing it, had offered his resignation.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10810-2003Jul31.html |title=Poindexter to Leave Pentagon Research Job |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=July 31, 2003 |url-status=dead |access-date=September 8, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120805115248/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10810-2003Jul31.html |archive-date=August 5, 2012 }}</ref> 

PAM had first been proposed and funded in 2001,{{efn|"DARPA's first call for proposals went out in May 2001 under the name "Electronic Market-Based Decision Support." The call basically said, 'We've heard this works elsewhere; show us it works for problems we care about.' Proposals were due in August, and by December two firms had won SBIR (small business independent research) grants."<ref name=hanson2007/>}} Poindexter joined DARPA in December 2002, and Hanson claimed that Poindexter "actually had little involvement with PAM".<ref name=hanson2007/>