Capital, capitol, and i think he will win, and i think he thinks hes going to win. This may be the way Forward Command if you do this, if he succeeds so much is at stake. If he succeeds succeeds and has a huge Successful Stock Exchange and know the people who work for him all of them were young and entrepreneurial, Venture Capital pours in the do it again and again and again, and then all you require really at that. Is for the regulators or legislatures not to get in the way of successful entrepreneurship and possibly introduce transparency to the marketplace so customers can make informed decisions. It is fixed. There is a path toward a marketbased solution. That that is what is at stake because precisely what you said is true. If the sec. Permitted the growth of many competing exchanges because it felt that competition without exchanges was good. Why did they not also at the same time allow investors to choose which exchange they wanted. The truth is, there is a rule that allows investors to insist on where orders go the rules are being broken. You read about this. The rules are in place. Investors are not exercising their rights. They rights. They have no history of it. They never ask. It is hard for them to find out. It is how it is directed. It is a problem, more of a problem. It was radical. They have never done it before. The banks super furious, but they are doing it. Now it is a matter matter of rules being enforced. A final question. After what you just said i can see how you could get turned around. Therefore, how would you rank this against Something Like the libor scandal, scams that j. P. Morgan does, they get the big contract. The other thing about this story, it is a piece with the spirit of the age of the financial market. Everywhere you look markets are getting raped. The Foreign Exchange is Foreign Exchange at exchange rigging scandal. Commodities trading scandals so heavily manipulated partly because they can but partly because the historic sources of revenue for wall street have dried up, and style has been cramped. Part of it is response to survival instinct in being banks and individual predators in the banks, and this is the same thing playing out in the stock market. And i think that is why it is happening. Basically technology has reduced the natural played by wall street historically. One of the things that you do is rigged markets. On that note. [applauding] thank you very much. Was going steve forbes and elizabeth ames, economic troubles. Later a look at the rise of highfrequency traders in the stock market with michael lewis. Wednesday books about president s. First, the roosevelts, an intimate history. James madison, and that 9 45 pm former pres. George w. Bush with a a book about former president George Herbert walker bush, portrait of my father. Wednesday a a discussion of how religion affects decisionmaking at the supreme court. I would say that in the hobby lobby case having to do with the private business refusing to provide contraceptive Health Coverage for female employees, i would say that Justice Alitos opinion in that case very much was influenced by his religious preferences. To accept the notion, the corporation which is an artificial, some religious belief system aside from being pretty close to ludicrous, it is highly debatable in terms of social philosophy. I do think that the justice went into the case believing that corporations because they are in some sense people we will probably are capable of absolving the religious preferences and value systems of their owners. A look a look at how religion affects decisionmaking at the supreme court. They discuss the issue at an event hosted by the museum in washington at 9 05 p. M. Eastern. In her book factory man, virginiabased Basset Furniture Company and its decision not to move production offshore. During this during this event she appears with the main character in the book. [applauding] thank you, aaron, and thank you all for joining us here tonight at st. Johns. Boty and john bassett who have both graciously agreed to stay for questions and sign books after the talk. Note cards have been placed in every seat, at lease the first 200 before we filled in the rest of the room. Ushers will collect the questions in baskets at the break just before the q a starts. At this point, id like to welcome john bassett iii to st. Johns. [applause] looking forward to hearing from you tonight, sir. Id also particularly like to welcome any folks who are here from henry county, bassett, and galax, i think you all share the spotlight in this as well. I could tell you about all of the amazing awards that beth macy has won for her writing, hello, anymoran fellow. But the real mark of her gift as a journalist shines in a simple question how many of you remember a specific beth macy story . By a show of hands, how many of you remember young selena, who made it to harvard with the whole community of the Library Patrons cheering her on. [applause] or beths awardwinning stories about the Somali Refugees that were coming to live in our community, where the children were going do bus stops where 12 languages were spoken. Or her series. Teen mothers. Or how families were navigating care giving for elderly loved ones 0, are maybe what comes to mind is one of her food columns that, now covered in grease staines, instruct you maybe how to make this is from 2005. Yall remember friends of bill . I bet here with us tonight we have lot of ibb, interviewed by beth. And we were lucky because we knew that our story would be in good hands. Beth has lived in roanoke since 1989, when she met her moved husband, and has two children, rod and max. She works for the Roanoke Times telling stories about us that have helped us know each other bert than we know ourselves. You know that journalists are supposed to be objective. But beth credits fellow journalist, mary bishop, who i think is here tonight [applause] beth credits her with telling her its okay to care about at the people youre interviewing and care about their story. This isnt a religion book but is rife with stories that resonate in this church setting. Stories about doing the right thing regardless of cost. Stories about real human beings, and their all too human frailties. And when they did and didnt treat each other with grace and humility, yes, this book is about what is related to whom and big industry and 1930s trade tariffs, but most of all, this book is about what it means to live in communities. So, please, join me in welcoming beth macy. [applause] wow. Im already tearing up. Thats not good for you. So, im going to read three passage and read a little from the beginning and then im going to read a little from the end, and then im going to read a little from the middle, which is weird, but its a good entree to introducing you to john. Im going to start with chapter one, the tipoff. Theres a prologue that precedes it, and its about the kind of watershed moment in 200 wh epicene said and is a watershed moment in 2002 to find who is making these individuals threatening to bring be in a straight down. And it would become the Worlds Largest petition progress. And so that comes before this and this is why im telling you how i found the story. Because in laying out all of the threads of the book, i was really driven initially by the question of what happened to all those people who lost their jobs. Half of the workforce was displaced. Where did they go . What happened to them . And the second driving question, was there another way . And a friend of mine helped me a lot, she lives in washington and she said its just so wonderful. You can find this amazing story that goes all the way to china and back. And the guy is still alive. [laughter] and its like living history. Wants in a reporters career, one is very lucky. A person like this comes along. He is inspirational, hes a good old boy from rural virginia, a largerthanlife rule breaker who has stood almost singlehandedly against the outflow of jobs from america. [bleep] and i made certain that it was okay that i say that. And so more than one of us said that. When they heard i was writing a book about localization, over the course of researching this book and hearing as many lectures and listening to them a big my question, like telling the same stories over and over, there were times when i agreed. When i first heard about him in virginia about a few miles away from my home in roanoke, virginia. He owns the virginia furniture market and begin driving at the same time. Right now as i type im sitting in a paisley recliner that my husband and i still fight over because of the company a seat in our 1926 american foursquare. I remember him showing it to me rocking it back and forth despite what i may have heard about made in china furniture, a swarm of High School Wrestlers would not fall apart. And with the Friendly Neighbor to discount, i invited him to pick his brain and i was working on this on the impact of globalization and articles that were inspired by the work of freelance photographer who had been making this hourlong threat three times a week for more than a year. And a Conveyor Belt converted for the food pantry, a disabled minister named leonard in his kitchen in the middle of the afternoon. And the people of henry county or refreshingly open about what would happen to them. And he wondered why we didnt do more to document the effects of globalization in the world. Not that any other Media Outlets have done any better. According to a Research Center survey, it was largely being covered from the top down, primarily from the perspective of the obama administration. It featured real and ordinary people and displaced workers just 2 . If these people wanted their stories to be heard, we were going to have to help. It would be up to writers and photographers like us to paint the long picture of what had happened and workers were paid a fraction from what others were earning. Some 20,000 people have lost their jobs. In the early 60s martinsville was their manufacturing powerhouse known for being home to more millionaires per capita than anywhere in the country. But by 2915th of the towns labor forces were unemployed and many of them had fled. He was now the longterm unemployment and a week before breakfast this furniture plant had burned to the ground. The 34yearold henry county man had been trying to salvage this copper electrical pacing to sell on the black market and this was visible in his police mug shot. There were many similar stories on the prime roster and a stranger approached one woman that i know outside of a cvs pharmacy and she signed for the purchase of the cold medicine, which was the main ingredient used in making methamphetamines. Most people were scraping by in legal ways, babysitting, working parttime at walmart, the director told me he could talk about what people used to do for work by their disfigurement. And the men who did this were missing fingers. We are the last resort to lies. But jewell explained there was a smalltown about 70 miles away who managed to buck the trend, he was from the family that had once owned the Largest Furniture operation in the world. And yes, he was from that family on the back of so many americans. And the story of how he fought against the tides of globalization work load legal and political intrigue and judging from what he told me about the asian competitors, he imitated the booming voice and the experts were going to tell him how to make furniture. But there was another even juicier story. He was no longer living in this eponymous company, he had been booted out of the Family Business a domineering relative in three decades later the family still had local tongues wagging with the talk of this fight scene and my favorite details like something out of dynasty. [applause] and was any of it true . And what did the family inside it had to say . What are the family infighting has to do with giving this to the lure of easy money overseas . And im just going to skip ahead to the very end of that chapter so that when i read the end it will make more sense. The moment i heard that there was a Company Owner that took on big business and the peoples republic of china, he not only kept the small factory going but managed to turn it into the largest factory in america and so i got on the highway to meet this. I already mapped out his insanely twisted family tree and already called around to get the scoop about this family feud. And i heard ari introduced several workers who were laid off not long after they showed up to take pictures of the Virginia Assembly line. One woman described her knees shot from decades of standing on concrete floors and wondering what were all those Little People doing at work today. And i are the new that he was grooming this to take over. And both returned after Business School to help save the family company. A Furniture Store owner described to me how globalization took a 70 bite out of his business, a store that used to be frequented by people that work in the henry county furniture plant. Thomasons father had worked down the road and his mother down another road, a sprawling plant started by marshall fields. And now the site of a Weekly Community as well. Frequented by retirees, a photograph displays a stack of towels. It was no longer a part of this, as rain was in itself is in bedroom suits. And so with his determination he probably couldve kept some of this is part of the company. I have interviewed scores of people who have said essentially the same thing. He knew all about this Covert Mission in the story he had been reared to run. But with any of them, would they open up to me about these ends . Would he reveal what it feels like with this chip on his shoulder and wouldnt tell me the real story . And with the people who grew up being bold enough to spill the beans . You dont even realize what kind of spider web you have going, a man who worked for years under his motherinlaw and bob stillman. Saying that this would seem like a 10cent novel compared to a spider web. But lucky for you the scorpion is already dead. John comes from imposing family of multimillionaires whose ancestors signed the magna carta that no matter what one should always keep the family secrets where they belong, in the closet. What secrets would he tell me, the daughter of a former factory worker . And this includes those who gave me their elderly mothers phone number in the context. And two others were described to races only daughter that she could find as a receptionist. I recalled receiving full Financial Aid because my mom made just 8000 per year plus driving cars or honda subcontractor. It was a party she was helping decatur which he said it literally made her gasp. This is the only way i could get there to crawl on my belly like a snake and i would do it. And i was a long shot whether he was ready to admit it or not. And with any luck at all he would help me explain this secured his piece to smart phones to the logs to asia and then trying to return months later and he was just starting the business and his birth in 1937, he was born during this epic flood and i dont think he had told me about it. And its like yeah, there were all kinds of this really great things going on. Just things that i heard about and it was sort of a precursor and even the story that i heard about that and what was it looking like. And it was a really key moment that i knew that we could build a book around. And last week i was talking on the phone with doug about this. He is the sweet one of the three. And so i really like doug. [laughter] and i thought, he was really in for it. [laughter] so its in my book. And then i got a little bit of character as well. [applause] so you have to remember that i have been over this story 30 times and we have a translator from taiwan who is at a high point and shes a woman. [laughter] and i had an interview and they had all downloaded it and i said, would what are you trying to tell me about this. And they said it was really cool. And he said the way that it they said it. And its like, what . Smoking . And you didnt tell me . [laughter] and so i said when we get off the phone i want you to go get your dad. And so when i wrote my book posole became a chapter outline for 27 chapters in the 27 chapter was going to be about this great moment in 2012 that i was actually able to witness, again in 2010 and resulted in american manufacturers and many had homes that john actually put it related to the and so there was a great kind of story where he says to me over the end if you had never been with a woman down the street, you dont have to drag that. [laughter] and so he had never done this, but now he was in a place to go. So that was going to be a great triumph of moment in the book and i knew that thats the way it was going to be, the end. And then one day i spent a lot of time and i hung out there for weeks at a time and one of the things that i noticed was the abandoned factories was part of this industry. It made lowend furniture really profitable. And the community is really proud of it and that includes beer lines or speed lines and they even have a word to describe the Conveyor Belt. And so then one day a friend called and said that they were on fire. So it was as if we had talked about it being a funeral for anyone that you knew. So that was part of this. And in the very last scene, i will just read it to you that when this happens, i found myself driving back and i knew that what he had done was an outlier in the industry and in the business and just in general what had happened was the story that had happened in so many other little towns. And i knew i had to end with those individuals there. And i wont read the whole thing. But one of my last trips, i finally went there whose family had landed in town shortly after the companys founder got his start. He was the one who flipped the switch on this boiler. And more than anyone i interviewed, they wanted me to get the story exactly right to honor the workers as well as the pioneers, its history every time they been up against an uncomfortable