Week InReview
Friday | Mar 1, 2019
The super-rich are being scammed on their private jets

Some fraud attempts are almost comical. One jet owner found himself charged 4,000 pounds ($5,300) for 240 sushi boxes apparently served on board his jet while it was empty, according to My Sky, a company whose software helps scrutinize and manage private-jet costs. Another was charged 6,000 euros ($6,800) for plastic cups after the provider mistakenly added two zeros to the invoice. Still another customer’s refueling bill ended up exceeding the capacity of the plane’s fuel tanks by more than two tons.

in case you missed it...
The firms which set the rules of engagement for the $8tn market for credit default swaps have tried to impose a little order. The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, the leading industry body for the swaps market, proposed last week that any payouts from the derivatives — which act as a kind of insurance, protecting investors against the risk of a company defaulting — should have a close link to the financial health of the business in question. (Financial Times | Mar 13)

J. Christopher Giancarlo, who is expected to leave his post as chair of Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the coming months, says he plans to re-propose a controversial rule to clamp down on traders’ ability to speculate on oil and other commodities before stepping down. (Bloomberg Law | Mar 13)

U.S. efforts to prosecute foreign corrupt practices got a big boost recently with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s announcement that it will prosecute companies that engage in foreign bribery affecting the derivatives and swaps markets, benchmark interest rates and other aspects of commodity markets. (Forbes | Mar 12)

Ordinary investors face a confusing situation when it comes to sizing up the people doling out financial advice. Can they can be trusted to act in their clients’ best interests, or should they be treated with caution—like a car salesman? (Bloomberg Law | Mar 12)

The Securities and Exchange Commission is starting a broad review of rules that have underpinned trading on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq markets since 2005, according to SEC Chair Jay Clayton. “As technology and business practices evolve, so must our regulatory framework,” the agency’s chief said Friday at a New York forum on equity market structure. “There are many areas that the commission got right, some that may have missed their mark, and some that were positive in 2005 but may no longer be so.” (Bloomberg Markets | Mar 8)
binge reading disorder
Last May the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal law that had confined legal sportsbooks to Nevada. Since then seven more states have begun to allow betting, and a couple dozen others are considering it. 
— Bloomberg Businessweek

Fittingly, on Pi Day, Google shared that Emma Haruka Iwao calculated pi to 31 trillion digits, obliterating the previous record by 6.4 trillion. It might seem like a irrational (pun very much intended) exercise to some, but as mathematician Steven Strogatz wrote four years ago, "[t]he beauty of pi, in part, is that it puts infinity within reach." So why not keep reaching?
— TIME online

What physicists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and their colleagues from the U.S. and Switzerland did with a quantum computer showed it's possible to go against the second law of thermodynamics, which essentially says the arrow of time goes in one direction. Mind you, they only reversed the flow of time a fraction of a second, and their findings probably won't lead to the creation of a time machine that works on humans anytime soon, but this is a huge leap forward (or should we say a small step backward) for physics.
— EurekAlert 
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