Betting on Kerry

If you're the gambling kind, I have a hot tip for you: John Kerry is going to beat George Bush soundly on November 2. I'm not saying that out of wishful thinking. I'm not saying that because the polls favor Kerry -- they don't. I'm not saying that because Kerry is finally talking tough on the campaign trail.

You can buy futures on the election, thanks to the University of Iowa Business School's Iowa Electronic Markets (IEM) 2004 US Presidential Winner Takes All Market, "a real-money futures market where contract payoffs will be determined by the popular vote cast in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election."

Click "IEM Current Quotes" for current prices. Right now the market is betting on Bush to win, by a margin of .551 to .444. In other words, a contract on Kerry winning in the amount of $444 will pay $1000 when he wins. Buy your contract now, since Bush got a nice bouce from Zell Miller's keynote address at the convention and Kerry is going on the offensive. Kerry won't look like so much of a bargain when he's trading ten points higher.