Wisdom in fragments

We should not assume that there is one single benchmark for all types of financial transactions. There are certain transactions that should be based on market rates, and others which call for the kind of benchmark that LIBOR provides.

MIT Finance Professor & Pioneer of Quantitative Finance & Behavioral Economics

Once you're able to reduce the human element, and automate the reporting of these statistics- you will be greatly reducing the potential for misbehaviour. This is where regulators can leverage technology, reduce their burden, and create a much more reliable system for all.

MIT Finance Professor & Pioneer of Quantitative Finance & Behavioral Economics

It has certainly affected the appetite to investors to engage in LIBOR denominated contracts. Financial markets depend on trust, and we had precious little trust as it was. The LIBOR scandal has done nothing to restore that trust.

MIT Finance Professor & Pioneer of Quantitative Finance & Behavioral Economics

It certainly plays a much bigger role than was ever intended to. A number of financial institutions and contracts rely on LIBOR as the benchmark by which other rates are set. I don't think it was ever intended that LIBOR would play such a central role between so many institutions and contracts.

MIT Finance Professor & Pioneer of Quantitative Finance & Behavioral Economics

The original motivation was to develop a sense of what lending rates were among the large money-centre banks. It was really meant as a reference rate of where supply and demand of funds sat at a given point in time. It was meant to be a fairly robust measure of borrowing and lending activity.

MIT Finance Professor & Pioneer of Quantitative Finance & Behavioral Economics

Why does torture happen? There are a variety of reasons, paramount is the role of torture as a 'shortcut' to investigating crime- many investigators and police have used this from time immemorial, and the efforts to abolish and curb it have been progressing over the years.

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture & Other Cruel, Inhuman Treatment

Torture is defined in international law as the pain suffering that is deliberately inflicted on a person for purposes of interrogation, punishment or any other purpose- and that is severe enough to qualify as torture.

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture & Other Cruel, Inhuman Treatment

Dubai offers a lot. We're currently at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). There's a separate jurisdictional regime in this area meaning that companies are treated under English common-law principles. It's a very safe environment for transactions to occur, and this gives us a big advantage of areas which simply do not have that framework.

China for example, aims to increase their buying by 400,000 barrels a day in the last quarter of 2012, and will be adding over 750,000 barrels of new refining capacity. That economic engine is still turning, but what people want is to be able to price that trade-flow.

In our part of the world, there will always be some kind of uncertainty. The market accepts and endorses that our physical oil is delivered outside The Strait of Hormuz, we're also not subject to any destination restrictions as Oman is not part of OPEC.

We have open and transparent pricing through our futures exchange- that means price is determined by buyers and sellers and not an 'official' selling price set by a producer. In that regard, it's unique and filling a need that is not currently serviced East of Suez.

The market definitely recognised and endorsed the need for a new benchmark. WTI was certainly disconnected from the pricing and economic activity of the rest of the world. Further to this, Brent is great for the North Sea and European trade flows, but it does not impact or reflect the actual activity in the far east.

In a bit of a unique proposition, this exchange was created before the ecosystem existed. When you look at the growth and development of WTI, you have Houston which has production, New York which provides financing, the refineries on the Gulf Coast, the traders, marketers, banks and many other pieces of the puzzle which are already there. The DME was a bit of a unique experiment, we created an exchange before all parts of the ecosystem were in place.

The consumer is far better educated today than he ever was. Consumers don't need to rely on intermediaries to tell them what is good or bad- people are social, they share information with friends and strangers, and go to a broader community for help and assistance.

There's a huge gap between the inspiration side of travel and the execution into the purchase path. That latter part of the process is so universally horrid that everyone hates it- and nobody is doing anything about it.

The opacity is the difference between profit and loss. If every airline seat that could be sold- were sold at the lowest possible price, the industry would lose billions. If every airline seat that could be sold- were sold at the highest possible price… It would make billions.