The changed tone in Washington, part 97:

When John Poindexter proposed a massive system to snoop on the financial records (among other things) of all American citizens, he was rebuffed by Congress, but doggedly hung on within the Pentagon.

When he proposed an artificial market which would pay people off for correctly predicting terrorist attacks, he got bounced in a hurry.

The former would have massively endangered peoples' constitutional rights. The latter got much more press.