IDK if academic is the right term, but market manipulation is definitely the nerdiest way of hiring a hitman. We could take this up a notch by making the bet (

IDK if academic is the right term, but market manipulation is definitely the nerdiest way of hiring a hitman. We could take this up a notch by making the bet (person A dies by date X, $100) tradeable. Maybe also create a derivatives market. Now we have a hitman market and a bodyguard market. Derivatives have several beneficial effects. One is uncertainty, which should stimulate a diversity of contracts: dead by X, $100; dead by Y, $105. People love arbitrage. The second benefit of a two sided market is naked short sellers. Best case scenario, naked short selling creates an infinite supply of tradeable hitman contracts. In theory, demand is always finite but as Keynes famously said... "no one f#&k-ng knows how demand works!" So eventually... Robin Hood adds every person on earth to their murder exchange and the market singles out a random person for $gme status. Her name in Ana and next friday, $6 billion of her murder contracts expire. Half the mercenaries on earth are trying to kill her. The other half are her personal army.