Comment Text:
The same reasoning behind allowing Kalshi's prediction markets wherein Wall Street can hedge against economic risk in indicators such as inflation, GDP, and interest rates applies even more to elections. Our economic future is directly related to political power. Markets that predict who will have that power provide two critical benefits: hedging against the risk of political change and accurately predicting future events that have an outsized economic impact.
If investing in political futures is somehow considered "gambling" by this CFTC, and is banned because of the possibility of corruption of the process, then every other free market should be prohibited, and Wall Street itself should be considered a corruptible casino with no benefits to society.
In fact, prediction markets like Kalshi aren't controlled by vested interests backed by high-speed trading and various other quant traders who often take advantage of smaller investors. Banning election markets at Kalshi will further ensure that hedging against economic and political risk is something from which only the very wealthy will be allowed to profit.
