Bangladesh, Jan. 20 -- Recent reporting and commentary in major Western outlets have cast an unusually stark light on the intersection of US foreign policy, speculative finance, and outright predation. As deplored even in the Washington Post, Washingtons latest assault on Venezuela does not resemble a conventional regime-change operation alone. Rather, it appears to double as a mechanism for highly targeted financial profiteering, blurring the line between geopolitics and what, in any other context, would be called insider trading.

The episode that crystallized this suspicion involved Polymarket, a so-called “prediction” platform. There, a strikingly well-informed participant wagered more than $30,000 that Venezuelan Presiden...