the first deal, aig ever discovered the super senior was back in 1998 when they went to see and said we have got this wacky thing called super senior are you interested and they said yes, bring it on because they started to to the regulation arbitraged and could basically do whatever they wanted to test this liberal capital that made a lot of sense. so, yes jpmorgan did deal with aig quite a bit and kept on dealing with them through this decade. morgan never would have lost a lot of money. >> not to the scale of its other competitors. if you broke it into, it's pretty stark. jp morgan is not even up there in the top half dozen from my memory.

yeah, you can actually see the breakdown who benefited most from the rescue. i think jp morgan was somewhere around 10 or 11 but i can get the figures for you >> but what about -- >> and the model i think -- they thought it was nuts. there was a discussion with bill -- this story is so many of the mistakes and the terrible things -- you know, egregious things that were done in 2005/2006 were discussed by the original jp morgan team back in 1998 and 1999. one of the things he used to do was try to put as many shorts on the monolines because he thought they were stupid. very prescient. in 2005/2006 when they were having a discussion what should with doe with super sr. they had the discussion, you know, shall we basically do what's called the negative basis with monolines and they recognized, yeah, sure if you use the

monolines you could exploit all the accounting rules and make it seem as if the risk magically disappeared which was basically what ubs and merrill was doing but the genuine risk hadn't disappeared but if there was a situation to blow up the super senior it was intellectually stupid to use monolines to protect yourself from super senior risk. >> but what about the exposure to the bear stearns risk and how citigroup put all its cbos. they were buying ceos from all banks including jp morgan which was one of the exposed to the hedge funds because they had sold them the cbos but they came back to them because they had loaned 90% of the money they were supposed to pay them. >> yep.

they would say over and over again, we made mistakes and they're very scared of people thinkingrñ they didn't do well. it's been like japan in the last decade. nobody wants to stick up above the carpet because they'll get too much attraction. but they said we made mistakes too and they listed all their mistakes just in case i hadn't gotten them all done and i mentioned them in the book. you can look at the results. you can look at who made the biggest writeoffs in the last two or three years and simply see the scale of mistakes that jp morgan made so far and i say there's still of plenty, plenty things to go wrong in the future. they have consumer credit card exposure. they have got -- there are scomplov exposure but the mistakes jp morgan made nowhere nearby their competitors, it citi, ubs, morgan stanley. they are not being forced raise a whole bunch of capital now.

you probably got a little bit more questions but thanks for very much coming along or if you want to grab me or -- >> gillan tett?k was named brih journalist for the coverage of the market decline in 2008. she was also awarded the wincott prize for financial journalism in 2007. right now she runs the global market coverage for financial times newspaper. to find out more on the author, please go to ft.com. >> alex storozynski recounts the

life of thaddeus kosciuszko who became an engineer in the continental army. mr. kosciuszko worked on victories in saratoga and hevk returned to poland and became commander in chief. the washington embassy hosted this event. it's over an hour. >> ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming. just to make sure everybody is in the right place, for those of you who thought that this was a public hearing on the bridge, that will be taking place at the d.o.t. headquarters. [laughter] >> this is also not about&; th twin bridges north of albany new york and this is not about mississippi, birth place of the lovely oprahwn winfrey. some of you may have heard kosciuszko indiana or the many

statues in america that are named after kosciuszko and those of you who thought this would be a discussioni'x about kosciuszk mustard, that discussion takes place at your local deli every day. no this is about thaddeus kosciuszko "the peasant prince: thaddeus kosciuszko and the age of revolution" he was a prince of toll rents who stood up for5 all races religions and genders. he was probably the greatest humanitarian of his era in 1817 when the news of death4m and ee in europe, funeral masses were held in catholic, lutheran and calvinist churches even jewish temples and muslim mosques held services where worshippers prayed for god to take his soul to heavy. think about it europe had gone+ religious strife yet everybody prayed for his soul. kosciuszko was born in

feudalistic europe where the commonwealth spanned from the black sea all the way to thete baltic. his family had a modest estate and under feudalalism if you owned land the people owned them so they owned 31 peasant families that tilled the earth. in feudalism the families that owned these slaves, these slaves worked from day until night. but poland had a form of democracy where the kings were elected and their king at the time of kosciuszko's birth was augustus and he was elected thanks to the help of his lover katherine the great of russia. now, russia started having more and more of an impact in polish society at this time so a lot of poles were trying to figure out ways to help drive out the russians. one of them was prince adam who we see here. he caught the -- kosciuszko caught the attention of the

prince who was at the time starting a new night school, a royal night school to create a class of soldiers that would help drive out the russians and kosciuszko caught his attention because he was brilliant in math and art. in fact, kosciuszko did this drawing of the prince. now, after graduating from the royal knight school which is the administration's building of the university of warsaw, kosciuszko became a captain of the artillery and during this time, some of the families, the families in poland decided that they wanted to get rid of the russians even faster so a civil war broke out. and in that civil war, polaski who was from one of the families also served in the american revolution led the civil war to drive out the russians. kosciuszko had a choice to make. do i join with him and help drive out the russians and go against the king and the prince who paid for my studies? either way, he would be killing poles so he decided not to take

sides and instead he took advantage of a scholarship to go to france and study art and on the side he studied military engineering because he couldn't go to the military school in paris 'cause he wasn't a french citizen. he audited those classes and learned about all the theories created these incredible military strategies. and while he was there, he did these paintings. this is one of them. and here's another palace that he designed that was meant for the prince but in paris kosciuszko also became obsessed with a new philosophy, an economic philosophy and under those who started it, they had a theory that all wealth comes from the land. and those who own the land are the richest but why are they the richest? they are the richest because the

serfss the peasants farm the land and make it more valuable so he came up with this philosophy laissez-faire hands off the serfs so they'll be happier and produce more. well, kosciuszko fell in love with this theory because it had a lot of implications for poland because there were slaves in poland. so when you returned to poland, he couldn't get a job in the military so he took a job tutoring the daughters of one of the richest men in poland. the lord had a daughter named louise. and kosciuszko started tutoring louise and explaining all about this and she said, don't tell me about it. because when you were in paris making nice drawings, me and my sister translated the first book from french into polish on it. that was it. kosciuszko fell madly in love with her. [laughter] >> and he decided that he wanted

to marry her so he went to the lord and he said, i would like to marry your daughter. well, the lord looked at kosciuszko's estate, realized he didn't have that much money and he said i'm very sorry but pigeons are not meant for sparrows and daughters of land magnets are not met for the sons of the common gentry so kosciuszko tried to elope with her. unfortunately, he was captured. and he pulled out his sword and he was about to fight off the men and he realized that this is the father of the woman that i'm in love with so he put his sword back into his sheath and they beat him up and knocked him unconscious and they took the daughter away. now, kosciuszko later had to run away because after this the father decided he's going to try and prosecute him for abducting his daughter so kosciuszko left, went to paris where he learned about the american revolution, first heard about the battles of

lexington and concord and from there he set sail for america and after crossing the atlantic in hurricane season where his boat was shipwrecked in the caribbean and he had to swim to shore with the mass because the boat fell apart, eventually he made his way to philadelphia. and when he got to philadelphia, he went and introduced himself to the only american he had ever heard of, benjamin franklin. and he walked into ben franklin's office and he said, i'd like to take your test for military engineering. and ben franklin looked at him like he was from mars and said we're a country of farmers and merchants and we don't have an army much less a test for what is it? military engineering? but we do have somebody be who knows a lot about geometry. we'll give you a geometry test. he took the test and he aced it and ben franklin said you're in

charge of building forts and he built forts across the delaware river from philadelphia at forts mercers and while he was building these forts they realized that the british ships would sail into the delaware and try to bombard philadelphia. so he started building what's known is a chevaux de frise and they were tree trunks that were shaved sit down and they would put iron tips on the end and put these under water so that when the british ships would sail in, they would puncture the bottom of the ship and then they would sink. the americans said this guy knows what he's doing so they made him a colonel of the engineers and they paid him a reward. and ben franklin went off to paris and suddenly there was a battle who would kosciuszko work for next? well, he got the attention of general gates who was the commander of the northern army for the continental army and general gates was in charge of new york.

and he knew that the british would be coming down from canada and attacking from three sides. so he sent kosciuszko up here to a fort and said if it's secure and someplace we can make our stand. so kosciuszko got up there and said you have this fantastic fort here but you have this hill and if the british come down and put canons in that hill they can shoot this fort and they didn't listen. well, the british came down, the general's army came down and sure enough, general philips who was with him said let's get a canon up there. the british soldiers also what kind and general phillips said listen, where goat can go a man can go and where a man can go he can haul up a gun, bring some canons up there. well, the next day the americans woke up and they saw these

little red coats dancing up here shooting canon balls in the water and when they started landing into the fort they realized we have to evacuate because we're dead ducks. so they marched down the hudson trying to run away and they put kosciuszko in charge of covering the rear. and kosciuszko to slow down the british troops cut down trees to cover the roads. he also rolled boulders to reroute streams so they could flood the roads and as a result it took the british 20 days to travel 22 miles because of these blocked roads. so kosciuszko earned a reputation of having this -- where you basically look at the terrain and in your fingertips feel where the canons should be, where you should make your stand. now, the americans lucked out because they were going to be attacked from three sides general howe changed course and attacked philadelphia. the british were repealed off

into the west so the americans only had to deal with the general's army that was marching from the north. and kosciuszko now was put in charge of where to put the canons. so he came up and he drafted these plans for the battle of saratoga, which was seen here. these are kosciuszko's plans for the battle, and he knew that with the british coming down from the north, they would not be able to flank the american army to the east because the hudson river was there and he knew they wouldn't flank them to the west because there was heavy forest. so he realized that the british would be here marching you up the hill and the americans were here defending an elevated position. as a result of this, this battle plan, the united states won the battle of saratoga, which was the turning point of the american revolution. now, unfortunately, there was a flamboyant character who was also at that battle named benedict arnold who often gets

credit for the battle because he charged down the hill and told, you know, my boys, let's go. he ended up getting shot and wounded. but the real credit went to general gates who was the commanding officer at this battle. and when everyone started giving gates credit for this, among them was dr. rush who was the most famous doctor in the american revolution and general gates replied to him, stop, doctor, stop. let us be honest in war as in medicine natural causes that are not under our control is much the great tacticians of the campaign were the hills and forests which a young polish engineer was skillful enough to select for my encampment. well, kosciuszko became closer and closer with general gates. that's because when slave owners tried to send their slaves to the battle of saratoga to fight in their place, gates allowed these black men to enlist in the army under their own name and kosciuszko saw the black slaves

of america the same way he saw the white serfs in feudalistic in europe they belonged to the land and american slavery was more brutal they equated the two as similar. now they realized kosciuszko knew what he was doing they decided they would put him in charge of what washington called was the key to america. west point. and the whole point of guarding west point was because the americans knew that the british would try to contain the american revolution to the new england states where they began. and if the americans could control the north river at the time which is now called the hudson river, they would be able to keep it all in one place. and because the americans didn't really have a navy, they realized that what they can do is fire on the ships from the water. so they put a giant chain across the river and decided they would build a fort right here to shoot down at the british when they tried to make this turn in the

bend in the hudson river. kosciuszko looked back here and saw these hills and knew that he had the same problem at the fort. you need to cover the high ground. now, the americans weren't too sure about that again and for them the only important thing was the chain. if we put this heavy chain across the hudson, this chain stands at west point the british won't be able to sail up and down the river. so kosciuszko kept arguing that you need to put these high points up there. and eventually they listened to him. now, while he was at west point, he became friends with a general patterson. and general patterson had a black man who was not a slave. he was a freed black man and hull was this lively character who was a great racontour and used to tell stories about his father that he said was a prince from africa and kosciuszko became so close to him that patterson said, okay, from now

you work for kosciuszko. well, kosciuszko built a log cabin at west point from which he worked out of his headquarters and he would always go to different hills and do drawings to try and figure out how to do these blueprints for west point. one day he decided he was going to cross the hudson river and stay there for three days, do some blueprints and then come back. so he told grippy as everyone called him i'll be back in three days. well, grippy had the cabin to himself for three days so what did he do? he had a party. and he invited all of the black men at west point, whether they were slaves or freed black men and they decided that they were going to drink all of kosciuszko's wine. and they got happy drinking this wine and they started dancing around and grippy decided that he was going to try on kosciuszko's dress uniform from poland and this dress uniform from poland has this ostrich feather on top and they put boot

black on his feet and was dancing around the cabin and kosciuszko couldn't make it across the river and so he came across the next night. and when he arrived he walked in on this party and all of these black men were in shock. they made faces as if they'd just seen the devil. they started jumping out the windows, rushing for the river and grippy fell to kosciuszko's feet and said whip, kill me do anything with me, mr. general. kosciuszko took grippy by the hand and he said, rise, prince, it is beneath the dignity of an african prince to prostate himself feet of him and he dragged him out to the other american officers and he said, we have a prince from africa who came to join our cause and by the way, he likes to drink. [laughter] >> so they started toasting him and they made him swill wine, brandy in a cocktail made from dutch gin distilled from rye and

juniper berries and rather than whipping him for violating his clothes they decided they would haze him college style and they smoked a peace pipe in his honor until he got sick so the next day instead of waking up with lashes on his back he woke up with a very bad hangover. during the 2 1/2 years that kosciuszko was in west point he kept arguing it's great that we have the fort here guarding the chain but we have these other spots, these hills where we need to put forts and readouts and the americans were not convinced. and so this is west point today. this is actually a statue of kosciuszko at west point. kosciuszko climbed up to this vantage point, which is -- which was readout number four and he said this up here you need to have canons up here all the time because you can see the entire

plane that up here and unless we have canons up here we're going to have a repeat where we'll be sitting ducks. now, there were -- after the battle of saratoga some french engineers started showing up in america as well. and the french engineers said, no, no, no, this is out of range. we'll never -- we'll never put canons up here. there's no point to do this and eventually george washington said, i think i agree with the polish guy, let's put forts up there and so they built fort putnam which stands today at west point. this is fort putnam from the other side. and kosciuszko essentially built this series of forts at west point 13 different readouts and heavy forts that became this impenetrable fortification that the british couldn't attack. now, around this time, there were someone else who noticed this, benedict arnold. benedict arnold was making a

secret plot with the british to sell kosciuszko's plans for west point to the british. now, kosciuszko warned all the time that that vantage point that you just saw we need 200 men up there to be stationed at all times. after serving 2 1/2 years at west point, kosciuszko wanted to get back into battle so george washington said, okay, go down it out south. we need your skills down there and on the same day he went to the south, george washington put benedict arnold in charge of west point and arnold wrote an article to all of his men saying we don't need 200 guys up there. in case of alarm, quote, only a noncommissioned officer and three men should be up there. and then he wrote to the british saying when you come in, come in the back way, readout number four and that's the best way because all these forts will fall like dominos. now, luckily benedict arnold was caught. his plot was uncovered when the spy, major andre was trying to

cross lines into the british sector and he was found with this map. this map is a recreation of kosciuszko's plans by a french engineer. kosciuszko gave all of his plans and put them in a suitcase and gave them to a mrs. sarah warren for safekeeping. and when benedict arnold's plan was uncovered mrs. warren was terrified this might fall outside enemy hands and put it on the lawn and set it on fire but this -- this -- so this was recreated by the frenchman and this is exactly what major andre, benedict arnold's spy was caught with when he was trying to go over to the british. now, in the south, kosciuszko now saw slavery up and close for the first time to such an extent as it was. here's a map of virginia, and you see the areas where there were large populations of slaves.

and here kosciuszko met thomas jefferson for the first time. thomas jefferson, the man who wrote "all men are created equal" owned slaves and kosciuszko thought he was a hypocrite. kosciuszko ended up serving the rest of the war in the carolinas where he developed a rapport with slaves in the southern states and he brought grippy with him. and it helped to other continental soldiers who were abolitionists. one of they say colonel lawrence who was an outspoken opponent of slavery but when the colonel was killed, the other men started taking off his clothes and kosciuszko wrote to general green who was commanding officer that this was mean and low-thinking. the two negroes belonging to are naked and their skin can bear as well as ours good things. kosciuszko was in charge now of south carolina and basically surrounding and putting a

stranglehold on charleston. and the way he kept track of what was going on in charleston was he had black spies that would go into charleston and then come back and tell him which ones -- which people were loyalists and which people were the rebels. eventually, kosciuszko you was able to shut off charleston and the revolution ended and he actually fought in the last battle of the revolution. now, at the end of the war, the americans owed kosciuszko a salary of $12,280. they couldn't pay him 'cause the united states treasury was not set up yet. so they gave him bonds bearing interest at 6% but this didn't help kosciuszko because he wanted to go back to poland. so he met this -- he met this man, mr. solomon who was a polish jew who came to poland in 1775 and he hung his shingle at 22 wall street in new york city

was a polyglot city at the time and solomon traveled all around europe and he started trading in currencies and he knew all the european laws so he made a lot of money and he opened this shop where he traded every species of merchandise and every branch of business. well, solomon became friends with jefferson, madison, and a lot of the people that he agreed with politically. so he would give them loans but these were loans that he didn't want paid back. and this is one of the greatest lost heroes of the american revolution because mr. solomon ended up funding much of the american revolution. the british arrested him in new york and he escaped and he made his way to philadelphia and in philadelphia he opened up a bruje which was essentially a stock market but it was out of the back of a coffee shop. and so kosciuszko met him in philadelphia and he gave kosciuszko $142 which is most

likely allowed him to sail back to poland and he understood the plight of the jews and he wrote to general green that, unfortunately, i'll be traveling around and i'll be, quote, in the situation of the israelites, perhaps i will be obliged to ramble on for two years or more and this is my misfortune. so obviously he's referring to the diaspora of the jews and he felt like he would be without a home. well, kosciuszko did make it back to poland. and when he made it back to poland, this is warsaw, he saw that the situation is even worse than it was before. the russians were controlling more and more things. and serfdom was even more brutal and kosciuszko wrote to his sister, serfdom is a word that must be cursed by all enlightened nations. now, luckily there were many people in poland at the time who agreed with him. by now the french revolution was going on. and there was also a polish revolution