You’re right that airports give a false sense of security — even overseas. A few years ago I was noshing on some pre-flight sushi in Narita airport (which serves Tokyo) when a bunch of Americans walked into the restaurant and began talking very boisterously about their recent negotiation with a Japanese company, and strategy for next steps. I recognized immediately that they were from a particular public company in which my company had made a venture investment (we were also a customer), esp. since the loudest guy was the VP of marketing, whom I’d met. I walked over, introduced myself, and suggested they shut up about business for a while. Anyone in the electronics business could have figured out where they were from — there were only 3 global competitors in that company’s space, and it was obvious from their talk that they weren’t from the either of the other two. And many of the other foreigners in the airport restaurant had come to Japan because electronics was exactly the business they were in.

Talking about insider trading is almost quaint.

The hypothetical I always use in teaching O’Hagan is along the lines of:

“You’re walking down the street, and a piece of paper suddenly blows out the window of the office building next to you, and lands at your feet. It reads, ‘The merger is going to happen tomorrow’ . . . “