Like them or not, markets are a going to be a major driver of economic growth. Here's a super-cool one: a prediction market for films. This market turns up all sorts of interesting data that film execs otherwise could never get access to - because it reveals people's preferences.
Traders are trying to turn this into a real market (so far no money is actually traded) - that would let movie studios and funding partnerships hedge the risk they take making movies. And we might actually see some decent movies out of Hollywood. Interesting.