One of the most heartening phenomena in recent times was the speed and certainty with which the Pentagon's 'Policy Analysis Market' plans were denounced and scrapped. One of the scariest is that it ever got as far as it did.
That the idea was raised in the first place is understandable - a willingness to think the unthinkable can help generate innovative and creative solutions to real problems. And the idea does have some grounding in theory; so-called...