the origins of this book really started five years ago when i was working on the lex column with some of you in the room who were there as well, and at one stage i was asked to try and do a quick sketch of what i thought were going to be the key themes going forward for lex to cover. so i started off listing things like telecoms, banks, etc., etc., and then i finally thought, hold on a sec, let's take a step back and look how lex is covering the financial world and corporate world in general and how that matches up to how the financial and corporate world looks. so i try to draw a map of the city of london and compare it to what the stories we were covering and was struck almost immediately by the fact that there was a dig discrepancy, that pretty much all the media was focusing on accessively on the equity markets and writing about foreign exchange, but there was this big wave of debt and derivatives which was pretty important for the city of london and wall street but which by and large was not being covered. so i started making some noise about that, and one thing led to another, a

. >> you're talking about 9/11 now write lex. >> yes. it's terrible, but this former administration killed -- there are independent reports from british research institute, they estimate that one in 1 million iraqis have been killed. who is talking about that? nobody. we are much more violent than the muslim world. this doesn't mean that the muslims, i see here are some muslims. they are with their family and you know that you are not better than we are. but, you know, it's not great what we have done to this world during the last war. . . >> that is very intelligent. he is ready to give more import to the civil reconstruction in the afghanistan. but i feel that he is making one mistake. he wants to the send 17,000 more troops to afghanistan and to increase the war against the taliban and al-qaeda. i would just tell him that i am one of the germans who -- i went to berlin in july last year. he came to berlin. you saw it on tv. i was one of the 200,000 people who came there. i said, yes, we can like all the americans. i was quite close to

the arningt was this under the campaign finance laws, an lex nearing communication forbidden within 60 days of an election. what is new about this is that often campaign finances focused on commercials on tv. this is a more traditional medium, a film. and yet the f.e.c. tried to regulate this film because it was going to be given out 60 days before an election. this comes at a very controversial time for campaign finance law because there have been two decisions that point in different directions. the first on fine gold, was the mcconnell decision in which the court essentially upheld it against a challenge, saying that the government could ban election earing communications by corpses 60 days before an election. and then subsequently after justice alito replaces justice o'connor, they succeed, and justice roberts writes for the court, that something won't be considered -- would be considered an election communication unless it can be interpreted any other way to attempt to get you to vote for or against a candidate. that sets the stage to this oral argument. the question is how is the

. >> the grantee being lex. >> urbanize, non-urbanites and some cases state applicants who are applyingr a universe of role providers. and they'll hurt us that their program of projects will include vehicle purchases. we go ahead and approve that grant at that point when we approve the grant is obligated. >> so you set aside some millions of dollars. >> right. we reserve the fund in our system. we have an automated so-called team system which is a computerized system, and the grantee's communicate with us through that system. we reserve the dollars. >> the transit agency has in effect receive the funds? >> when we obligated to have a green light to sign a contract. >> okay. >> they sign a contract either on behalf of their own transit agency or in some areas where we have had a great deal of success in getting economies of scale of our transit agencies they might team with other transit agencies for a bigger bus by. and each bus provider goes about the business of manufacturing those buses but as i'm sure you can appreciate, mr. chairman, we don't want to pay the manufacturer until they

manner but, you know, the glory positions were the banking editor, the economic editor, things like lex. it wasn't like the capitol markets that sat in the attics away from the news room and most capital markets coverage was on page 423. one person as i was moving across pointed out to me because i had just gotten pregnant fault moving to capital markets would be great for a new mom because it would be quiet. nothing ever happened in credit and debt. [laughter] i cannot. but i arrived in capital markets and one of the first things i decided to do, and this is where the story of jpmorgan group comes into being was to go down to attend a conference of a body called the european securitization forum that they held once a year. so i went down and walked into the center, a great bit of french architecture and into a plush velvet conference room to find out what was going on the scene i walked into i remember clearly even today it felt almost immediately while walking into a strange alien jongh o if you like. there were a bunch of people walking around and smart casual, there were lots of peo