Prediction markets can take bets on outlandish events that ‘get laundered into legitimacy,’ Gen Z’s favorite economic commentator warns

Financial markets have long influenced perceptions, but prediction markets can prematurely create a permission structure for possible events in the future, according to economist Kyla Scanlon.

In a recent New York Times op-ed, she pointed to a dynamic that trading legend George Soros once observed, namely that market expectations help shape reality, not just predict what’s ahead.

But traders of stocks, bonds, currencies, and commodities are reacting to events and making forecasts based on that.