Ben Mezrich has a new book out, "Rigged". It’s a purportedly true tale of how a Brooklyn kid went out to change the world of oil trading forever. Hmm, well, yes, I think Mezrich is rather over egging the pudding with that. Here’s a review:
Russo, the protagonist of prolific writer Ben Mezrich’s latest
page-turner, "Rigged," feared that the months of hard work,
globetrotting, networking and Machiavellian machinations he and his
friend Khaled Abdul-Aziz, a member of the Dubai ruling family, had
invested in the ambitious project had turned into a futile exercise.
…
Exchange and the Oman Investment Fund, is now located in the Dubai
International Financial Centre.
Well, OK, a tale about the founding of an oil exchange in the Middle East could indeed be interesting….but it’s not something that would change the world. An oil exchange is just a bunch of blokes in suits shouting into telephones. It’s nothing to do with hte actual physical trading of oil….no one is now loading or unloading oil in Dubai as a result of it. All it is is that people in that time zone can now shout into telephones, rather than doing so in London, New York, or anywhere else on the planet.
So I’m afraid that Ben Mezrich has slightly over-hyped what his hero has don in this book. A minor and marginal change to the world, not anything that requires quite so much hoopla. Might still be a good book for all that but the precedent isn’t encouraging.
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