two jimmy carter he is more confident than jimmy carter was. i don't think he will have a campaign challenge the way jimmy carter did. >> elaborate police a. >> you mean when edward kennedy ran against jimmy carter? >> you said he won't have a primary challenge. >> i don't think that the republicans have anybody that turn out to be as exciting for the country as ronald reagan. the republicans will probably nominate mitt romney they always nominate the guy who came in second place last time. that is mitt romney this time around. >> i agree. one of the things that i think about barack obama and

the difference of jimmy carter is back to people think obama is competent fundamentally. it is difficult to say this in georgia. [laughter] i am willing to go back home but when carter saw the resignation of his entire cabinet comment that send a signal to the people that he picked these people. [laughter] so the question is to lose the whole cabinet to believe you can put together an effective team anywhere? that type of malaise and damage seen throughout the country is fundamentally different than what we are facing now. that said, economically, the economy is the biggest concern and weather are not determining if he will be

successful. one of the other dynamics of the republican party is they may well or may not nominate mitt romney but what will happen in their primaries come if you remember was fed democratic primaries in 2007, there was a day fall on clash of the various constituencies that obama emerges as somebody who could pull close together. . .

>> a lot of the public grabbed hold to that. looking at the president's speech last week, a lot of what i heard about it was that he looked defeated or he sounded defeated. obviously, getting into the job, it's different than campaigning for the job. you spoke about that marriage now that's happening. i'm not sure if that's being communicated or i don't know if the public is perceiving that as, you know, the natural progress of what the president is trying to do or if he's getting in there and compromising and kind of just bending over and losing that steam. my question is do you think that he will be able as he's talking about doing more compromising, and compromising, that's he's able to convey he's level headed or see the president has being

defeated. republicans don't seem like they want to compromise, they want to get their agenda across. >> i think -- i mean -- i think it's kind of hard to say with that. ultimately, he -- the democrats do not have control of the house of representatives. and i think that simply is what it is. it's the position that clinton found himself in '94. i think that even with history as a guide, the act of the forces on the right pushing the republican party in the direction that it's pushing, it's hard for them to say they won't overreach in the same way that newt gingrich did. you know, when we saw just as aside, we saw newt gingrich comparing muslims to nazis. and this is supposed to be the intellectual guy. >> right. president candidate.

>> this is a guy has a former history professor knows just how inept that analogy is. that is what he has to say on the republican side. it's hard to say those forces don't translate into obama at least having something in his favor. >> yeah, i mean -- i think that the primaries that are coming up are going to be a battle between the tradition swing and the tea party wing of the republican party. the angry and crazy candidates are going to come out. and the angry voters and crazy voters are going to come out. i think obama is going to look moderate and level headed with that comparison. >> with that said, just as an african-american, as an american, the kind of dissension in the rabid deviciveness that we've seen in the last -- you know, the last couple of years is not pleasing to me.

outside of my own political affiliation, we see people who actually believe that the government is, you know, being led by a socialist who wasn't born in this country, and is actually a closet radical muslim, it just conjuring up the images, you know, from timmy mcveigh and oklahoma city in 1995. there's no -- if you remember then, the republican party kind of was accused and gingrich was accused of ginning up the anti-government rhetoric that translated into the attack. there's nothing that anyone can feel proud of in seeing these kind of perceptions that are being fermented, if i can say, by fox news, and the network which has abandoned, you know,

the ethics of journalism and news in pursuit of profits and prop -- propaganda. >> clinton was seen as the check. i think obama could develop the same image. >> as we close, we know i'm more of a class half full kind of gal. i wrote a piece more than a year ago. i want to stand by it a year later. right after the you lie moment during the state of the union address, i said before everyone freaks out the parks posters and bringing weapons to rallies let's not forget we've seen it before. we saw it at the end of the civil right, why? we were on the brink of process. people saw they relosing the battle of our country moving

forward. i support people's right to disagree with the president's policy. when you see some of the hateful rhetoric, and the level of bullying happening towards gay teens, you juxtapose every poll, 99% supports gay rights in some form of fashion, or at least equality, 99% support interracial marriages. the people who are angry, are angry because they know they have lost. it may take 10 to 20 years for the country to change in the way they see it changing. that gives me a little bit of hope and helps me sleep at night even when i see some of the not so pleasant rhetoric out there. i want to thank our wonderful panelist. dr. cobbs called "the substance much hope: obama and the paradox of progress" and mr. mcclellen is called "young mr. obama and

the making of a chicago president." they will be out in the lobby. thanks so much for joining us tonight. [applause] [applause] >> this event was hosted by the new york public library center for research in block harlem new york. for more information visit nypl.org/locations/schomburg. >> former senator george allen, senator george allen, "what can washington learn from sports." >> a great deal. i learned a lot on the sidelines and training camp. probably the most important thing that washington can learn from the world of sports, in sports where someone is from their race, religion, ethnicity doesn't matter. can you help the team win? it's americatocracy.

everyone has the opportunity to compete and succeed, not equal resulted, but equal opportunity. which is what our country was built on. you would never see the way that washington operates redistributing from the winners to those who are not winners. if we are up to washington, they take one the steelers six super bowl trophies and say the poor detroit lions. they've never made it to a super bowl. let's give them a trophy. no, you have to earn it in sports. there's accountability. there's measurement. you know who's winning and losing. there's also in sports a competitiveness that you are always looking now to improve yourself and how you can make your team better. and for team america, we need to be looking at what are our economic policies, tax policies, energy, education policies, which are mostly state, not federal, but what can we do to make sure that everyone in america has that opportunity to

compete and succeed? i have a chapter in the book that you never punt on first downs. well, we've been punting as a country on first downs since the 1970s. most sports team love to say we're number one. we're number one. well, america is number one when it comes to energy resources. thanks to our plentiful coal as well as gas and oil resources. to the leaders in washington, look at these resources as a curse. any other country would consider them a blessing. we need to unlease our resources and the resources of our creative people rather than continue to get jerked around by hostile dictators and cartels. >> is the competition getting fiercer between team republican and team democrat? >> it sure has been. that's decided by the people. the fans decide who has the best idea. the fans get to vote. depending on, you know, what the office is every two years, every four years, or maybe six years.

and the fans are not happy with what's going on in washington. who in the heck has been cheering about anyone coming out of washington for the last several years, other than strasburg who was a pitcher with the nationals baseball team, there hasn't been much to cheer about. they love their high school, college, pro teams. the people say they we want a change. they see what's going on in washington by any measurement, whether it's debt or the lack of jobs, washington -- the policies in washington, whether it's bailouts under president bush or the health care monstrosity, or stimulus spending that doesn't create jobs or counterproductive energy policy. the voters, peoples, fans, ticketholders so to speak, the owners of the government said we want to change. they made that change in the elections, and now those who have been elected, the number one thing they need to do is

keep their promises. keep their promises they made to the people. that'll start getting the country back in the right direction. >> do you miss being in the arena? >> i do from time to time. susan and i have been very active in bob mcdonald's congressional race, and morgan griffin in southwest virginia to scott richel at the beach, and robert on the south side, and keith in northern virginia. we're involved. many have encouraged me to get back into it. we'll consider that. right now i'm trying to use this book and try to find a fresh or unique way of sharing people ideas that make good sense, that may understand, that'll make sure that team america is in a better position obvious -- position to be ascend. >> afterwards by deegan jones.

>> last year he played with the redskins. my older brother, deegan is what my brother and i call him. my sister named her second kid after deegan. the first one after roman emanuel. it's very nice of both of them. there's a lot of stories in there. ronald reagan who is the one that actually got me interested in politics, because as governor, he would come to the l.a. rams football practices. here's a politician that knows what's coronet. then he asked me to be chairman of young virginia for reagan in 1976. that's what got me involved in politics. it's really because it's ronald reagan began governor is the same year that we moved out to california. there's a lot of fun stories. whether you are baseball, football, hockey, or even a

nascar fan. >> george allen, author of what washington can learn from the world of sports. booktv covered a previous event. you have to go to booktv.org and you can watch the full event in it's entirety. >> visit booktv.org to watch any of the programs that you see here online. type the author or book title in the search bar on the upper left side of the page and click search. you can also share anything that you see on booktv.org, easily by clicking share on the upper left side of the page and selecting the format. booktv streams live online for 48 hours every weekend with top nonfiction books and authors. booktv.org. >> coming up, emily lambert, senior writers for "forbes" magazine examines the history of

board, mercantile, and other futures markets. she speaks at afterwards bookstore in chicago. it's about 45 minutes. [applause] >> so i am much more comfortable interviewing people than i am speaking. i'm sure that will come across very quickly. thank you so much for coming. thank you to beverley for having this event and hosting it. it's -- this just happening to be my favorite bookstore. i have bought many a book here, i love coming here, and beverley has a connection to the industry. in chicago, who doesn't? i started talking to her. my uncle grew up with leo, and i went out to breakfast the other morning with the trader from the board of trade that used to work for beverley's father. of course, it's chicago.

everybody seems to have a connection to the trading business. so i just got -- i would say a few things about writing this book and then i'm going to interview a trader, because that seems much more fun than listening to me talk. so i -- i'm -- first of all, why i wrote this book. i moved to chicago in 2004 for "forbes." and if just seems that i seem to meet a lot of traders everywhere that i went. we rented an apartment to start in lincoln park. and took up tennis, which we played very badly, and ray conman, a big trader played tennis on the next court regularly. then another time we went to the lake front, and i was reading a book about the "dummy's guide to future and options." it was a local business and seemed i should learn more.

some guy tapped me on the shoulder and i said it's going to get easier. i said that's good. i was reading about some -- i think it was a butterfly trade and options and it just seems like craziness. and meeting all of these traders seemed really interesting. you know, i just got curious. of course, the chicago board of trade building is gorgeous. i was curious to what went on inside. there seems to be a lot of news going on in the industry, which to anybody in the industry might find kind of, you know, obvious, but in 2004, there was a lot going on. so i started covering the industry. and then i wrote a couple of stories, i wrote a story about the merger of the two exchanges, i got a call from a book publisher who said do you think that there's more to say about these traders? and i thought, well, of course, because it -- the trader are

such interesting people. there must be something. that was 2008 when the financial crisis was happening. when oil prices were going crazy, when food prices were going crazy. i wasn't sure what i was going to write. but i thought it sounds like fun. write a book. in retrospect, that was the most naive thing i could have possibly ever, you know, done. because the more that i learned about the industry, and learned about traders, and learned about the history of this place, the more i felt like i was taking on just a very big project and also a very kind of personal project. for people in the industry. i mean there are people here who's families have been here for generations. and i suddenly thought who am i to be, you know, coming and sweeping in and writing this story.

but i'm glad that i did. because the -- really the futures industry is all about risk and i guess in my case, it was just one of those naive risks which i hope paid off. because i -- i have really enjoyed it, and i've really enjoyed meeting the people who i've met. so -- >> i'd like to say how i actually had the good fortune to meet up with emily. it turned out one day i was out having lunch with a good friend of mine, and a guy who's been at the exchange a lot longer than i have. he represented a generation ahead of mine, maury snyder. >> who's son is here. >> who's son it here. i was telling maury, i'm a third generation trader myself. the older guys are fast disappearing. you know, i really wish that somebody out there was really

collecting storying to really write the history of this very exciting industry. something that was such an important component of the chicago economic history. and maury said to me, what are you talking about? there's this gal, he's doing it right now. of course, the first thing that i did was get emily's phone number and call her i think an hour later to introduce myself. i really wanted to do what little i could to help her to make this a very successful book that she's writing. >> which i appreciate. and which also i should add that this is does not -- to me this feels like -- first of all, it's more than chicago economic history. it is chicago economic history. but futures have, you know, transformed the financial system in ways that i think that people don't fully maybe appreciate and don't realize. that goes for traders as well as for people now who are wrestling with these big concepts like derivatives and understanding

where they came from and understanding what happened here is a story that hasn't been told very much. and i'm not so silly as to think that it's completely told in this book. i mean i'm hoping that this is a -- i've scratched the surface of what i think is interesting history. it deserves a lot more attention. and i know that i have more stories in my notes that didn't make it in. i hope that i can to add to this record after this and another time. because there just really is so much here. so i asked bill to talk because i was hoping that he might be able to explain to people who aren't in the industry who are here what i'm even talking about at all. because his family very much mirrors the story of the futures industry here in chicago.

there are -- maybe you could just start if you don't mind, what's the future's contract? >> right, you know, a lot of people it's very mysterious arcane type of business. but futures contracts are essentially insurance products that are -- that was the reason that the industry first developed. it was futures contracts are a way to offset risk on the part of both people who need to use commodities and people who produce commodities. very simply, a futures contract is a contract between a buyer and a seller for a specific commodity, a specific price for a specific future delivery date. and i guess, you know, the easiest way to explain it in terms of how it's used by people to offset risk, i think one the simplest samples is you take an airline company. someone who needs to use a lot of fuel on a regular basis.

and, of course, fuel prices go up, it can have a severe, adverse impact on their profitability. so an online company realizing that future -- that crude oil is at $80 a barrel and they are concerned it may go to $100 a barrel, they have the ability to purchase all they need at a given price of $80 knows that will be the final cost of the product. >> they use futures because they have too much risk. they want to shove it off to other people. >> right. >> what makes this such a fun business, chicago has all of these people who are willing to take that risk. >> that's the other side. the real economic reasons for having futures contract is for those who want to avoid risk. but it's certainly also provides a great opportunity for those who want to assume risk in search of profits. >> so there are -- >> that's the speculator. >> the speculator. the hedger and speculator. there are two -- for people who

are traders, this is boring stuff because you know it. but for people who aren't in the

>> tell me about the pork bellies. how did they trade? your uncle, as far as i know, was the meanest to walk. >> it was completely deserved. i think it essentially became his persona. he was one of the old school

guys that felt that i had to really put on a tough front. and, you know, he wasn't afraid to use intimidation to further his business interest. it was very funny, because my uncle, you know, after getting that reputation, it was very common among the order desks on the floor. whenever there was a new clerk who had just -- was just starting off at the exchange, the kind of rite of passage was to give this poor kid a bad order and send him to my uncle, bill henner, they would give him a live cattle and sent him. and they would watch the ensuring fire works that would go off when my uncle would browbeat the kid and tell him he was a moron and he didn't deserve to be here. the order desk would have a great bit of amusement around that. >> these are the kind of stories that it took me a while to

understand what that meant. because there were different pits, where different things were traded. if you had an order for the live cattle, if someone took an order for the live cattle to the wrong pit, it was -- >> right. generally speaking, you know, they would say no, no, this is live cattle. you need to take it over there, young man. my uncle reacted a little bit more interestingly than that. in his defense, when he was not trading, he was a very generous man. he helped lots of people, you know, in the industry. and, you know, he had -- he wound up with four wonderful children that are all very good people as well. >> and i spoke to a woman that was a clerk for your uncle. she said she loved being a clerk. everyone had to pay her respect because they didn't want to have her go get bill and and -- you .

>> nobody wanted to incur his wrath. >> right. so you were there also when futures left the world of agriculture and moved into the world of finance. this is a big -- this is a big step to leave what was essentially a -- the world of commodities and get into the world of money. >> right. it was always assumed that futures market had to be about agriculture products. you know, and, in fact, there was -- it was a very novel idea to introduce the idea of having financial futures. and interest enough, actually, that happening during the time that i was in the involved in industry. i worked there in 1969. i went away to college the year after this. and actually didn't return to chicago to get back into the business until 1978. and the merc had changed dramatically in that 10-year period, actually 9-year period.

it had moved from a small facility at 110 north franklin to a much larger building at 444 west jackson. when i came back, there were -- not only where there the agriculture markets, but gold futures contract that was doing enormous volume. there were five currently contracts that were each doing very well. and within the first year that i came back, they had introduced a treasury bill of futures contract. which was kind of the precursor for the euro dollar contract. it became around in 1982. >> who were the big traders and personalities on the floor when you came back? >> when i came back, you know, i think there was some certainly big traders. i think the cattle market was certainly being dominated by

russco, and tom ditmer. ditmer is buying cattle. people would run to cotail him. i remember in the hogs and bellies, joe greenburgh was a big player. joe greenburgh moved into the treasury bill pit and became a very large trader there as well. >> what did you trade? >> i started off off -- i came k to chicago, i worked as a clerk for a few months, then leased the seat. i started trading gold futures. at the time, beside cattle, gold futures was the secondest largest. part of it was due to the fact in those days, people were utilizing gold spread. buying one contract, selling another as a vehicle to actually defer taxes. >> and by defer, you mean not

pay. >> yes. what they were able to use -- they were able to use gold carrots -- gold contracts to take a tax liability from one year and move it into the next year. some people did that year after year after year. the problem was eventually the government changed the regulations. and people could no longer roll their taxes, they say. >> yeah. >> so all of the sudden some people wound up with multimillion tax bills that were immediately due. >> okay. >> and quite honestly, i think that was the end of the ability to roll taxes through gold spreads. it was sort of the beginning of the end of the gold contract at the merc. the business moved to new york. >> after -- so now keep going forward in time. the '80s, they were the heyday of trading in chicago; right? what was that like?

i want to ask you about the board. >> i think the two most important new developments at the merc in the '80s was the introduction of the europe -- euro dollars. >> can you describe what the euro dollar pit looked like in it's heyday? >> euro dollar pit was incredibly packed. there was no extra real estate available. in fact, at one point, one the big brokers there decided he was going to leave the business. he was able to sell his spot in the pit, just enough room for one person to stand for $1 million. and -- but it was -- >> what made -- sorry to interpret -- interrupt you. what made that spot so phanatuss snick >> they were doing so much in the euro dollars. a good broker was making more in a month than a good broker in

the cattle would make in a year. it was so busy that clerks who were there to process order flow, to get the orders from the desk, and tell the broker who he needed to do were being paid six figures at one time. >> you told me once about a lunch that you went to. i think how much you spent. >> yeah, back in the day, when we were doing quite well, we used to take turns buying lunch for the other two people in the group. and the running joke was to see how high they could run the bill. you know, expensive champagne, yak, things like that, along with a fancy meal. >> how much? >> sometimes in excess of $1,000 for lunch. times were good back then. [laughter] >> the markets were very inefficient. being on the trading floor was

an incredible advantage. if you were willing to be disciplined and careful, you could make a lot of money without taking very much risk. some people managed to do it without take any risk, i think. >> so now things have changed? the floor is not what it was. certainly the markets are a lot more electronic. ed board of trade which we haven't talked about but maybe we can at least in questions. and the merc is one company now. the henner family, you've been there for three generations now. is there going to be a fourth? >> i think it's unlikely. i don't know. i don't have any children that are particularly interested in trading. you know, i think -- definitely electronics is completely changed the industry. and it's changing the way that ultimately is -- has allowed the volume to go to numbers that we could not have imagined 20 years

ago. and ultimately, it's provided a much fairer even playing field for most of the participates. you know, the professionals in the game no longer have the ability to react faster, to get better prices, and to have any real advantage over the normal retail trader. >> so what did the merc people think of the board of trade? perhaps we could have someone in the board of trade contingent here address that? >> you know, i think -- i'm not sure why there was essentially such an ongoing culture clash. you know, but the board and merc never could seem to really get together. there were talk of merging the two exchanges back when i started in the business. and for one reason or the other, they could never get together. i know if it was the egos of the

people who were running the exchanges. you know, it was always kind of an interesting thing. the board of trade people i think always had an attitude that they were first, and they had their exchange was a more legitimate entity than the merc. i think there was always that attitude that the merc was always the second rate exchange down the street. >> we were just talking to somebody before this who said that the merc was the juvenile exchange. did the -- that was the nickname for the merc. did you have a nickname for the board? >> not that i recall. >> you -- >> actual fortunate. my father had memberships at both exchanges. he had his office in the board of exchange. i think even though he predominantly traded mercantile exchange products, i think he likes the board of trade better. in fact, he had originally encouraged me to go to work at

the board, instead of the mercantile. he said it was a more civilized place. >> why did you end up at the merc? >> part of it was youthful rebellion. that's honestly why i think when i started in the business, i didn't want to trade agriculture products. i was really excited about the new financial futures markets. and i felt that ultimately, they would be where the big volume was going to occur. and that's why i started off in gold, and then soon moved into foreign currencies. because i realized that the foreign currency market was potentially the biggest trade of all. >> and do you think -- what do you think people -- do you think that people today understand what futures are? >> outside of the industry? >> outside of the industry. >> no, i think there's still that same confusion in the minds of most people. you know, that's why -- you know, that's -- you know, even had so much fun with it in various movies.

futures industry has always been kind of the arcane subset of the financial industry. and very few people understand it. even though it's really not that difficult of a concept once you've sat down and take a look at it. >> thank you. is -- does anyone have any questions? if not, i may target people. >> actually, i wanted to say one more thing. that is when i was working as a runner, before the advent of financial futures, the biggest trade, the mercantile exchange was pork bellies. and it did actually, i think, 90% of the volume in the '60s. and the pork belly contract, actually this year, 2011, is the 50th anniversary of the introduction of that contract. and just last month, there was the article in the wall street journal talking about perk --

pork bellies, and the mercantile exchange was the house that bellies built. as of last november, six contracts traded in pork bellies at the chicago mercantile exchange. it's one of those things that is not -- certainly is on -- it appears to be on it's way out. and i noticed that. i also realized that, you know, last year was, i think, the first year in '70s years there wasn't somebody with the last name henner trading at the chicago mercantile exchange. it's sad to see things change. certainly the exchange itself, the volume is healthier than it's ever been. >> it's a story of market evolution; right? >> absolutely. >> really your family was there during the amazing time of innovation. and so now it's almost a new era of innovation. >> yes, it is. >> questions? >> any questions? >> yes.

>> emily, you mention you are not from around here. and as someone from a seebo trading family, broker family, you do a job good in the job talk about the exchanges are sort of clannish. obviously generations, there's family credits -- family secrets and things. not always they want to get the general public. how did you get people to open up to good stories and so many that you'll be able to tell us later? >> i -- over drinks. [laughter] >> no, no, i did not. is my husband here? first of all, i covered the industry for a couple of years before i wrote the book. and i think that was really helpful. people knew who i was and then were able to vouge for me.

you are right, it's clannish. you had to have people make an introduction to other people. it was, for example, and everybody knows someone. but it's really all about introductions. the way that i found bill was through the snyder, the way i found the snyder was by calling people at the new york mercantile exchange. it's all -- it really is a just -- it's a game of telephone where everybody knows someone. and then i think this was just a unique time where the -- because things are going electronics, because the clubs are no longer actual clubs and they are publicly traded companies, because there's a period of transition, people are able or at a point where they are more willing to look back and talk perhaps than they were before. i think that helps.

[inaudible comment] >> you know, i mean a lot of times people come in and they want to probably are or want the dirt on somebody. i think she has some very good, well organized questions where you didn't mind answering. it took me five or six days with her before i actually told her the truth. >> this is true. [laughter] >> you had to see who angle she was coming from. a lot of people try to come into the business, wrote a book, and look for the negative. same as the wall street journal reporter, he wants the negative. it's going to be on the front page. i think she did her research. >> i do want to say that it's easy to find the negatives in this business. and i'm not trying to hide them either. and i think it's part of the history of the place. but i feel like a lot of people focus a lot on the negatives and we miss what actually works about the industry. and i think that especially now

when we look at what's happened with the derivatives business and things, i think it's important to go back and learn from history also, about what works in history. >> larry snyder, can i ask you a question. when you started, it was also the '60s; credit? >> -- correct? >> i started working as a runner at 111 north franklin. >> how little did people know about the industry? >> nobody knew anything about the industry. nobody knew anything about the mercantile exchange. as, you know, bill said, there's only 500 members. many of them were new new yorkes who held for purposes. board of trade had maybe 1300 members, and could only be a handful of clerks. it wasn't as large as it is today. so the story that you are leading up to, it's 1968 and i'm

in the elevator in north franklin. two women come in. one says to the other, isn't there some kind of stock exchange in the building. the other says, yes, but it's a small one. i wanted to stop the elevator and say excuse me ladies, it's a futures exchange, it's the world's second largest. nobody knew this. go up a couple of years and i'm a senior in college. people say what are you going to do when you get out of school larry? i said they are going to work at the mercantile exchange? that's great. can you get me in? i have to buy a sew sew sew -- . no, it's not that. what's the difference? trying to explain to your future father-in-law what you are going to do for a living and how you are going to support his daughter. fortunately, in 1972, there was an activity in cattle. there was a lot of protests, i

forget whether that was the year that prices were too high or too low. suddenly all of the channels in chicago, the news teams had stock footage of the trading floor. then people would say are you one the people that goes down and shouts and waving your hands. and you'd say yes. they'd walk away. they'd get a sense of what you did. i think that plus the currency trading really helped change things. and i think today if you called up channel 9, they'd have a massive collection of stock footage of the trading floors. and that really started to change things. but up until the '70s, the only schools that taught anything about futures trading were the land grant colleges, university of illinois, iowa, and that would be in the agriculture economics department. there was one book on the futures business. if you walked into any bookstore, up until really the early 1970s, maybe the mid

'70s, there was nothing on futures trading. you'd have to look very, very hard. so that became part of my mission was to help educate and become a cheerleader for the industry. >> well, and in the '80s, you taught classes; right? when there was a much bigger interest in futures when people thought they could come to chicago and make money and spend $1,000 at lunch. >> definitely, i was on the education committee. we noticed that there was a huge number of summer employees. many of them were children, and nieces and my -- nephews. people wanted to know what they were doing. they didn't want to go down and answer the order or run the phone. they wanted to go down and one class introductions to future. it was so well received, the

exchange said maybe we should be doing this on a regular basis. they eventually build a catalog of about two dozen classes that were offered on a quarterly basis. i kind of took over introduction to futures and a few other courses. options for beginners. we would have so many people taking the course in the summer, we would have to rent out the little auditorium at the opera house. people were moving to chicago to learn about the business. there was no electronic trading. if you wanted to know futures, you had to be on the floor. there was no two ways about it. i would have at the time and moving into the early 1980s, mid in the 1980s. i was running the futures department. i would have nba graduates come to me saying i'll move to chicago, i will work for minimum wage, 30 hours a week. part time work as a runner just to learn the business.

you know, their intention was to leave after a few months. that was fine by me. they needed to get down and make their connections, meet people, understand how it works, and you wound up with suddenly a situation where you were no longer there because you were somebody's son or daughter or niece of nephew, but because you had an advanced degree and you saw the potential for all of this. >> thank you. and at the risk of being too merc heavy, i want to target one other person. nancy, you were -- are you -- i know there's some debate, are you the first woman to walk on the floor of the exchange; right? >> yeah. i was the first woman allowed on the floor at the mercantile exchange in 1962. in fact, the mercantile -- chicago mercantile was the first exchange in the country to allow woman members. and my husband wanted to open

his own business and so he chose me as his partner and bought a membership for me. of course, at that time, they were really anxious to sell memberships to, you know, whoever came along. they were willing to sell one to a woman. and the first day that i went -- after i went before the board, and i was approved, my husband said to me, well, now you have to go out on the floor. at that time, they didn't even allow woman employees. so we took the elevator, we went down, i kept saying to him, woman aren't allowed. woman aren't allowed. when we got to the gate, the guard that used to be there, nancy can't go out on the floor. he ran harris for the president, he said, oh, yes, nancy can, of course, in the meantime, bud led

me out on the floor. so i was the first woman to go out on the exchange floor during trading hours. and there were some long faces looking at me, but all of bud's you know, friends congratulated me. that was the end of that. and then i think it was probably a few months, maybe to six -- oh, i did go down and answer the phones for a while for him and work at the desk. but, you know, i had four very young children at home. and, you know, it didn't work out. so i think in a few more months maybe six months after that, they did allow -- someone did start working, a woman did start working down on the floor. from that point on, it was history. >> and then actually, bill's cousin was a woman in the euro dollar pit. perhaps the most successful female trader. >> arguably the most successful

woman floor trader in history, i would say. she did very, very well. she had a great mind for mathematics, and she could do numbers so well. she traded the back months spreads and the euro dollar contract. >> which is one the things when i started the book, when people said back months spreads i just went. >> essentially euro dollars interest rate. >> i'm going to stop you there. people who understand you, understand you. people who don't, aren't going to -- >> they aren't going to understand anyway. >> yeah. so any other questions? if not, i hope you get a chance to mingle and talk to people. because there are some really fascinating people here. charlie andrews is the whole start and end of the book. he came in from kansas.

which i appreciate. he's an interesting guy. board of trade people who may have gotten the shaft in this conversation, i'm sure have interesting things. i really appreciate you all coming. it's really sweet and charlie. >> i got two great stories. one about his aunt, and one about his uncle. when the cattle market really started to boom, all of the cowboys wanted to come to town to see what was going on. there was a fellow by the name of frank booth who ran the biggest truck line cattle bull hauler in the united states from greenland. frank had this much height on me and 100 pounds. he came to buy a seat. he told him, why don't we get you a yellow jacket? and let you get the feel of this before you buy a seat.

and so here was this giant old man among all of the young runners. running around the floor and everybody would whisper who is he? who is he? who is he? his uncle bill called him over to pit, and he said sonny, i see your little older and bigger than most of these runners. to get you on the same plain, i'm going to buy you a boy scout knife. his dad had the greatest sixth sense of the market and they'll back me up. they were out on the new yacht, and the yacht sank. and they were on this life raft, and on the second day, his dad david disclosed to his wife, the worst part of this i'm sure the soybeans are 11 down today. it was great, great humor that

happened among all of the things. but what we build is the gigantic market of the world. and it's going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. and i'm really pushing emily to come out with the next book. because we have to have counterparty risk. it cannot go off to derivatives into thin air. and we must have the contracts designed or redesigned to fit the marketplace today. but this place will grow like nobody can ever imagine. today they traded almost 100,000 cattle. big day we ever had was 35. the corn will trade 400 to 500,000 contracts a day. we couldn't get over 50,000 in

the pit because physically, we couldn't handle it. electronics are putting us into the future. but the big thing to remember, there's 408 million people in north america, and maybe maximum 200 million people in south america. outside of our boundaries there's 6 billion people. you got two sides of the hemisphere. we're the food producers of the world, and they are the producers of industrial products and we develop the swap market which is what i learned how to do swaps there which is the most valuable thing i could have ever learned in my life. and we will propel, we will build jobs around the food industry just like china with their 17 vital trace elements will build steel and all of these things. but it's got to be a world of

swaps or it's world war iii and we nuke each other out. >> and i have to say at the -- when i started writing this, i would have no idea what you just said. [laughter] >> hopefully if you read the book, you'll go back and say now i know what charlie is talking about. because they started very simple markets. they grew into something that sounds much more complex and sounds scary. but charlie knows all of this, because he knew it when they traded cattle. there's a progression of what he says starts to make some sense. >> okay. thanks again, everyone for coming. we're open for several more hours. i hope you'll stay and have some wine and food. emily here has graciously agreed to sign some books. we're going to start that right now. thank you both. it was really fascinating. >> thank you, joe. [applause]

[applause] >> emily lambert is a senior writer at "forbes" magazine. for more information and to read her blog visit blogs.forbes.com/emilylambert. >> "made for goodness" is the name of the book. well known author desmond tutu, along with his daughter ms. tutu who is here. ms. tutu what is this book about? >> i think most of what the book is about is the essential quality of human beings is that we are good. our essential quality is our goodness. our behavior does not always bear out that essential quality. but it is my belief and my father's belief that our essential quality is goodness

and everything else is aberration. and we relate stories from both of our lives, both of us are clergy. both of us are priest and pastors. my father famously shared the truth and reconciliation commission has seen in all kinds of places where he has seen all kinds of grief and horror. i have seen the same kinds of grief and horror, but on a more domestic scale. in my role as the pastor. so i have a very clear sense of the pain that we can inflict on one another as human beings. but i also know that this is not the essence of our being. and that we respond with horror to what is horrific because horror is not the essence of our being. >> are you also a resident of south africa? >> i'm not. i'm