You northeasted a roof, a roof protects a build and can the idea was in russia comes from the mob, everyone was a roof. So he became a roof essentially, and he became a billionaire by worming his way into the kremlin and into yeltsins family with a capital f who ran russia. A roman is a toy saysmen from siberia, making rubber ducks and childrens toys. An orphan, again, jewish from nowhere. Has an idea of privatizing the oil industry and creating an oil company. They partner up. Just like the facebook story. Theres no shares of lawyers but he is the roof and they create the second Largest Oil Company in exchange, roman makes this human payoff. Every week they would send over a suitcase of cash, 3,000,005,000,000, whatever he asked for. 100 million one year. And that was their relationship. And that kind of the beginning whenever the story the money gets bigger and bigger, rompan becomes a billionaire, and then yeltsin starts to fade. Starting to die and with this time sentence oligarchs control 50 of russias gdp. An incredible statistic. Seven men end most of the country and decided we need to install someone who is the next president who we can control. Someone who is a nobody, a cog, a lowlevel guy we can groom and then we own the country just as we did with yeltsin. So they found a guy named vladimir putin. Putin was a kgb agent cannot high level guy. The assistant to mayor of st. Petersburg. He had helped barasofsky it up a car dealership. They installed him as president. Yeltsin game up his seat, something unheard of in 2000, at the millennium. He retired, handing the seat to putin who was then elected and became president. Now, the oligarchs had made a miscalculation. Putin was not a weak man. The minute he took power he invited the al backers to stalins old house. A place where there are bullet homes in the walls where people have been lined up and shot. The oligarchs oligarchs were saa table and putin came in front and said, youve all done very well, made a lot of money. You can keep your money, just stay out of my we. And that my way. That was the beginning of the change in everything. And some of the oligarchs said, youre leader, and theyre all very welty today and still. Some said, no, and barasovsy was would one of them and went up against mutt put. He owned a Television Start and started using is to attack putin. There was a submarine nat sank. All the men were dropped on the bottom of the ocean and died. Putin was attacked over that, and putin decided i need to get rid ofship he went on the news and say the oligarchs who rule the country, im going to take care of them are so Something Like that. He got the message and fled. He moved to london. Went to exile. When he did that, roman realize he cooperate be his roof anymore. So he met him on an airfield in france and handed him 1. 3 billion. He basically handed him this huge sum of money and said, this ends our relationship. Heres your money. Were no longer partners. Barasofsky took the money and then decide it wasnt enough because the Company Ended up being sold for 13 billion. So he then suedes abrmavots in court in england, for 5. 6 billion. That lawsuit ended with bar ooh sofsky lose fog a dramatic and horrible fashion. I know some people know the ending. It at least one person ended up hanging from a bathtub dead. The other main character, yes, is a guy you might have heard of because of the poisoning incident. He was a guy who was a kgb agent who, when barasofsky was almost murdered ban to moonlight for him. He was his security guy. Shortly thereafter, he was given an order by his own boss, to murder barasofsy. Instant steads he went public. He basically went on the news and said ive just been ordered to do this. We need to clean up the kgb. That was a mistake for him. He was arrested and then he was exiled to london and became enemy number one, and it was eventually killed by poison, the first time a Nuclear Attack was essentially used on an individual no one yet has been Proven Guilty of that. On his death bed he blamed putin personally. Theres a lot of mystery over what really happened to him, and that a lot of this is discussed in this book but it was kind of a linchpin to everything that happens in the story. This is a cool and big story for mow. I talked to my parents and say this is my first adult book. Doing a bbc interview and the guy says, tell me about glasnost, and i was like, holly crap. What did die . Thats a big question. But i figured before i just open it up to questions, im just going read a little bit so you get a taste. This is from the point of view of a peace of poison. November 2, 2006. A fleck of sillery dust no birth than a grain of sand. Suspended in a microscopic gel, spinning, twirling, in a bowl of saliva. Drug down by muscle goo gravity. A fleck of that economisted in plants and soil but in this form only had been created and processed in handful of highly sophisticated laboratories. A molecule was so rare that only three nations hads the able to manufacture it. So spectacularly uncommon, it wasnt discovered until the 19th under by a whom would was so intrigued by this part cal she named if after the country of her birth. A silver small flake, twisting down the esophageal walls and spewing a constant exhaust of smaller flakes that grew together into an atomic cloud, alpha particles, swollen by a pair of neutrons and a pair of protons. Too big andy heavy to pass through anything thicker than a piece of paper but a million times more deadly than high joe drone cyanide, destroying every cell. First the cell another of the see for gas. The alpha particles turn inside out, tearing through the walls, causing them to implode. Then into the stuck, spreading across the mucosa, and rending cell as i part, the fragile dna the strands weakened, bowed and then shattered on through the dying stomach lining, the ruptures intestinal walls spreading to each and every organ one by one, the kid anies, liver, sleep. Finding lymphatic nodes and the heart. One fleck of silvery dust churning like the meltdown of a Nuclear Reactor through the body of the man as he slept next to his ballroom dancer in north london. So, that is a scene. And thank you very much. I hope i got the anatomy correct as i went through the body. And ill open it up to questions. Theres a lot of you here but dont feel shy. Yes, sir . [inaudible] a great question. Mark zuckerberg and i have a complicated relationship. I spent six months trying to get him to talk to me about the book and didnt want. To eventually when the movie came out he kind of liked it. His tune changed a little bit. I know cheryl stanberg, i went to college with her elm she is a wonderful person, and i thought she was glowing to be mad at me but she said we were mad at you for a year, she is the cfo of facebook. She said but then we decided to embrace it and everything worked out. Then i was at a dinner with the number ten employee at the facebook, and i said, does mark hate me . And he texted mark right there, and mark started making jokes and then everything was fine. So i dont believe mark hates me anymore. When i went on my book tour, they would send over a statement to go before i spoke each time which said, ben is the Jackie Collins of silicon valley, and i wanted to put that on the back of the book but my editor went let me. The movie made him look very good. He was an antihero but people loved him and helped facebook a lot. Helpedded war dough a lot. He helped eduardo a lot. He should have sent me a gift basket. He possibly care that much. He is doing a book club and a couple articles said the one book that will never be on the facebook book club. So, it happens. I have nothing against him. I think he is a brilliant guy. I heard many over the putin crowd were high, ranking bureaucrats and the just in the anarchy that occurred they were able to seize the companies, but your description seems to be against that idea. Yes. There will two types of oligarchs. A handful of people were red directors who ran state, sanctioned companies. What went if yeltsin, his daughter was a very important part of his life. She made a lot of these decisions for him. She was like a party girl who knew everybody in the social scene in russia and he had friends with these young men and was hand picking people to move in to these companies. So a lot of her friends were people from nowhere, people hanging out with her people. Most hover the oligarchs ended up being outsiders and not the people who were red directors. A handful of people who did remind behind but almost all of the oligarchs were jewish, people who were not in the party because they were jewish and not allowed to be part of that. If you look at the oligarchs, its hard to find one that superintendent jewish. Ones who made it were not these people who were in the government before hand. Its interesting. In some ways im very impressed by these people. I know a lot of them were pretty bad guys and a lot of bodies along the way, but in the end these people came from nothing. They werent people who had things handed to them, and they were ambitious and did something pretty intense and incredible but they were also willing to be ruthless. Another question. What do you think putin thinks about your book . I have actually heard that putin may have a copy of it. This is actually this is a little controversial, i think. This i probably the most pro putin book you can read coming out nowdays because in the scope of the story he is not a bad guy. What was going on in russia was thats chaos, turbulence, craziness where men were walking away witch huge fors and russian people were being destroying resources taken by this hand. Of men. Putin when he took over said, im going to try and fix this country. He was a very powerful and strong man, and his goal originally was to stop this corruption. He was going to be the only one who would make decisions. He was going to run the story, and he basically took down this whole oligarch system singlehandedly. What happened was that it became a pyramid with him at the top. But his goal initially and the scope of this story was actual live very pro russia and was actually very pro his people. People underestimated million from the beginning him was truly loyal but what he was loyal to was not yeltsin. Hi was loyal to the idea of russia. The idea of this strong, bearlike nation, and he remains loyal to that. So, i know thats a little controversial because people do see putin in different ways, and i agree a lot of what he does is horrible busts i think but i think in the scope of this story its not a negative portrayal. So i dont know if this going to come out in rich. Coming out in Nine Countries right now. England is going to be interesting to watch because of the murder trial, the poisoning trial is going on right now itch dont know how the book will fit into the trial. Back to russia to find out. Ill wait and see what he thinks. I will Sea Bret Rattner prankcalled me. He said, ben, we just got invite built putin to meet him in moss sow. Were going tomorrow. I was like, no, we shouldnt go. He go, no, were going tomorrow, and kept this up for 20 minutes and i was sweating. Then he said, im just kidding. He is crazy enough to go. But in the end, i think its going to be wellreceived. Barasofsky was seen as a demon in russia. People hated him for various reasons, and putin really hated him. And yet towards the end he was this despondent. Miserable individual who was suicidal and wrote a letter to putin on his last days and hatted sent to putin and the letter said im sorry exlet me come back to russia. ll just teach math and putin ignored the letter and never responded. When when he died putin said Something Like its sad but he was nothing to me, and so its interesting. Im curious to see what the opinion of this book will be because it real where brings out the characters characters charan brought out before. Back there . Maybe you kansas answer the question but you cant abc but is putin essentially now the head of the russian mafia . A great question i cant answer. I dont this story is not about the mafia. Think theres a real distinction between oligarchs and the mafia. Oligarchs are men, businessmen who built these giant businesses in a place where there was a lot of violence going on and certainlied that had interaction with the mafia but it was very separate institution. The idea that the godfather of the kremlin he was a business man who also had probably a digs division in this company that would do things but to equate the al backers to the mavways very different thing. New putin at this point is definitely the wealthiest man in russia. A lot of people say that he is probably the ultimate oligarch. The oligarchs are considered his cash register. When he wants Something Like an olympics, they pay for it. So he has control of all of this wealth but he is a president and a leader in a country that is built kind of like a pyramid right now. So thats the way i would put it. I would make a big distinction between the mafia and the oligarchs. The research youve done on this book, do you think putin will be president until his death. A great question. Im asked that a lot. People were asking, these sanctions are they going to force the al backers to take out putin . I think people are look eight incorrectly. Another miscalculation of putin. Putin at one point was created by he oligarchs and they ran russia and created putin. That flipped on its head. Putin is above the oligarchs now. Its not whether theyll take out putin. Its which oligarchs will putin take out. The country is getting poorer because of oil and its become can desperate. That makes putin stronger. Putin is an incredibly popular leader. His popularity in russia is way more than any american president has ever had. People love him. He is very strong. He is shirtless on a horse all the time. Wrestling bears and winning hockey games, right . He is a very strong leader and russia is a place where people like strength, and they have horrible winters and they look at strength as something very important to them. And so i dont think that putin will be hurt by the sanctions as much as people want him to be. I think more like lip he becomes powerful and entrenched and i think that he stays until he wants to not be there anymore. But you know what . Im not the expert that people there are iter to there are better people to ask that, russian experts. Im not an expert on this. My opinion is that he stays president. But i could be wrong. Sure. How much of your research did you do in russia . Sounds like a london base. Now that you have written the book, even for nonjournallists to go to russia can be dangerous. The book everything is in london pretty much if went back and forth to london where their exiled. I got ahold of thousands of pages of court documents, all these depositions from the trial. So the trial ended up depositions, people like putins head of state was deposed. Everything character and every scene in the book you can find documentation in the trial which is incredible to get. And most of my research was back and forth to these subjects who were living in london. I dont look at this as a project, a dangerous project but a what i wrote, when you read it, its a thriller. Its its a james bond, godfather type book. The New York Times will have things to say about it that arent that nice because its written as thriller and not as other russian history that is a thousand pages long. It reads like a movie. We had one funny meeting where i was sitting with brett rattner, and this very big russia and brett goes are we going to get killed for writing is . The guy goes, you watch too men movies. Brett says what i we write the wrong thing . He says, dont sale the wrong thing. But i found everybody very nice and kind and it was an open situation. The same bay people love the sopranos people will like this book. Everybody is sympathetic and i wasnt trying to uncover things that arent already not necessarily talked about but not thing that is that hidden. Youll see things you have never seen before but not anything that is negative and smoking gun you. Have to read and it tell me if you think it was scary to write. I dont approach it that way. I wrote imlike a thriller, and i think the fact that i sit on that bridge, i write nonfiction but i write it like a thriller issue write books that look like movies. The reason people want to talk to me because theyre like, well, ben will write until a way that reads like a thriller and i can say, he just made that up. So, its the kind of situation where i can tell a true story in a positive way, i guess. So you have to read and it let mow know what you think. Its hard for me to tell kuo whether or not russians are going to not like it or sure. About the research that a writer does and Something Like this. How much of your Research Guides your story and how much of the story guides your research, and when do you know you have enough . That is a great question. When do you know you have enough itch have friends who are writers who spend ten years because they dont feel like they have enough. I always feel like i have enough. When if write a story like this, the way it starts is a main character telling me his story. So if sit down with him and i let him talk. And he talks until he has told me the story. Then i go back and i outline it. So i come up with an outline and use a three, act structure. So its true but i fifth it into a threeact structure. Youll final that all real life actually fits a movie structure. You start off, you want something, theres obstacles to get it, sufferedly maybe a romantic interest that come inside in the Second Chapter or third chapter. Then subtly something horrible happens and leads you into the second act where youre trying to do this, trying to do this, its getting worse and asker then something really big happens and you see the ending and you make it and thats the threeact thing that happens in life. So after this guy tiles me the story i go through it, and then i realize,ing this is what aneed to know and thats when the research starts. Its intense. A lot of travel mitchell wife my wife goes with me. I ask their to find the 100 pages on this club in russia and she tries. We get all the information together i, i get all the court documents, which is helpful. In this case i was at a meeting with a bunch of russians and was standing there and very large man walked up behind me and put his hand in my pocket. I said what are you doing . He said dont look until you get back to your hotel. And i went back to my hotel. What the hell . Im talking about poisoning. And i get back and i take putt and wait was computer key card, it was a thousand pages of court documents. And im like, wow. I dont know what this is. I dont know if im supposed to have this. I have to fly back to the u. S. I have a lawyer on call in case something happens it and was an amazing resource. So you get things like that. When i whereas writing the facebook story, a similar thing happened. I wont say who but i was in penn station in a dark alley, and somebody handed me this much court documents. There you go. You get things because people want to tell their stories, and so you get ahold of everything you can, thousands of pages, and then you sit down and you start writing. So once i start writing im done with research. How die know i have enough . Well, want to have enough color in every scene i can draw the scene. Sometimes that means literally calling someone and saying, what color was the couch in that room . And there are like, why are you asking me that . And so you get that specific because youre trying to redescribe something that happened ten years ago. Once i feel like i can draw everything singing scene then i start writing and dont research again i. Write it. Even if im missing thing is finish the book and then say, okay issue dont know what this looks like do the backup research. The whole process, this book took a year. Normally it takes three to six months. This is a much look what were talking about. A much bigger story in some ways. But thats my process. I dont know. I dont necessarily think all writers work the same way. For me ive never spent more than six months before on a book so this was davider and a different experience for me. An interesting oligarch story. How did you choose the characters that you put in the book. Based on who approached me and who wanted to tell me the story. This is a story i had. I also think theres an incredible drama between the two men, boris, an older mentor figure who was a very complicated and complex individual, and this youngdashing guy from nowhere 0 who builds an empire and its flips on it it has and the young dashing guy has to say goodbye to big old are guy and has to hand him his money, and in that they created putin. So i think that is an amazing kind of thing to base a story on. I dee do think the story is an awesome story. Its much more mitt cal. Im not a political person. Im not writing a protest book. Im writing a thriller that take place in a certain place there are lot of Great Stories the oligarchs are varied. When i approached the book i knew this is a vast subject. But im not going to write a vast book. Im going to right this thriller that takes place in this setting and hopefully youll learn about everything. So thats only really four main characters and its boris, roman, and putin, and those are the four main characters through which you read the book in a lot of places i have to figure out what their point of view might be, putin is a very inscrutable individual. But building on all the legal documents and deposition is think i was able to do that. So, have you any do you have any idea what will be your next project . I do. I will say i have four movies in the predevelopment stages. This one, i wrote a book called seven wonders, an indian jones type. And i wrote a book called sex on the moon a while back, being made into a movie, and i just sold a new project, my book and movie next. Called the 37th parallel. I will say its very akin to class encounters of a third kind. But its try. A guy colorado who is a sheriffs deputy who became obsessed with ufos and its not about ufos but he has a family, gets an rv and starts going oophor osites and uncovered something really strange and its really wild, and i dont want to go too much into it but the book is knew october. So ill have it done in a few months. And it will come out next june. Any other questions . You said do i sleep . I also have two little kids, so, no, i do not sleep. Its weird. I always look back, how in the hell died i write this book . When did i write this book . I look at it, dont remember writing this scene. My wife and i joke, its like that movie where she wrote and it i get credit. I have learned to write very, very quickly. It dates back to my speedreading to watch really bad tv. I still like really bad tv. I loop the bachelor and bachelorette, and to get to watch that i need to write very quickly. Right . So i actually write 14 pages a day. Thats my rule. Its not about time. Its about pages. So if that takes three hours i work three hours. If i always try to write the same amount of pages and thats the way youngite writers should go at. Dont think about time. Think about page. You can take a year to write two pages or take two pages in a minute. All depends on how youre going with the book. Dont think about it. Im going silt here until i finish this. I dont think im going to sit here for a certain number of hours. I zalell sit here until i finish the pages. Somehow it happens. I will say i do sit in a room a lot. Not a lot of glamor in the writing process. A lot of hours sitting in the room. But it works. So far so good. Anybody else . Questions . How much rewriting do you do. Over the years it has changed. I dont really rewrite. When i finish a book, its finished and i send to the editor and they might have a couple communicates but theres no real channelings. The process of write can for me involves a lot of thinking. Ive actually been doing a lot of dictation writing. Using dictation software, i wrote about 50 of all my books dictated them, and the software is not great so what that forces you to do is rewrite because you get these pages with a mistake in every sentence. Then you retype the sentences and youre actually fixing it along the way and sharpening it and cutting it. In general i dont rewrite a lot, and i dont know what that is. I have a friend who is a writer, he wrote a book called my age of anxiety. We were room mates and lived tolling. He was this best man at my wedding and we are the exact opposite types of writers heavily takes ten years to write a book and hates everything he does help feels miserable about and it is a genius. His mom would say work harder so its a lot different i guess come i dont know. But i will say i have always kind of just written, okay like grade and set it off. Also remember i wrote so many books and i think what happened as is i honed myself. Most writers like write one book nine times and i brought my books before i wrote my one book and then i wrote six books that didnt go anywhere. I read 15 books before bringing down the house. In a lot of ways its like my 25th book so ive been writing and writing. I will say one that outline i know money i know how many pages are to be in each chapter and i know exactly what im going to write up for a ride it so a lot of that happens before i write it. Anybody else . Anyone you would like to see cast in this movie . I have been talking about casting this movie. Its early and dont have a script left yet traders a lot of big screenwriters to want to be a bulls eye think its going to be awesome. For the berezovsky dinner would the perfect but also kevin spacey would be wonderful. I worked with kevin allotting kevin is amazing. For rahman abramovich Leonardo Dicaprio or someone like that. Someone who is young and dashing. Litvinenko is something he would be amazing at and i dont know about putin. I dont know, thats a good question but in general sadly the author of the book has zero control of these things greatly are the lowest man on the totem pole. We are below the caterer. You show up on the set and they are like theres a are like theres a bar over there, go get a drink and you get to hang out on set but they dont want to do anything and i always save producers favor writers because they can do whatever they want with the blood. Ive been lucky it depends on who you work with and i worked with great people so i do feel like this is going to end up being a good project but i dont know who will be in the movie yet. Anybody else . Daniel craig. Sin and a craig would be an awesome putin. Hes good in everything and i think you would be amazing. Thats a good choice. Anybody want more questions . If you dont have anymore questions thank you so much and im happy to sign books over here and talk about whatever you want. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] im still a journalist and understand what that means. Journalists are people of faith in washington and beyond that again im not arguing the point that seems a bit unusual and they think unusual that im writing a book thats not about politics or the media for about the bush years. Its about to me what is the larger journey which is asking the questions. Who am i trying to become and being on a path of respecting my relationship with god. Host joining us on booktv, john goodman from the independent institute. First of all what is the independent institute in what he do for living . Guest the independent institute is a think tank and i just started my own think tank called the Goodman Institute. We work very closely together and im an economist rate my focus is on public policy. Host where you based . Guest im in dallas that we have a virtual think tank and so i could be anywhere. Host now john goodman you have written about health care for quite a while. Is that a fair statement . Guest very fair. Host hears her most recent book, a better choice, Health Care Solutions for america. The Affordable Care act is now below the land. Guest it is. This book focuses on six big problems with obamacare that arent going away and are going to require congress and the president to get together and solve them. We dont sell solve them things are going to get very bad. Host what is problem number one in your view . First of all do you accept the Affordable Care act obama cares the lava lamp and are you okay with that . Guest of course is the lava lamp but the big problems we need to solve its a bad reform. We have been much better than that and thats what im trying to do the book. Host the biggest problem in your view was with the Affordable Care. Guest you and i are required to buy an insurance package. The cost grow faster than income and if history is the guy they will grow twice as fast as her income so its going like this, that the federal government should help for us is going to be very flat. Spending on medicare indefinitely in spending on medicaid hospital grows the economy indefinitely. The subsidies and exchanges after 2018 are going to grow only with the economy but health care is growing like this and government help versus flat so that means more the burden has shifted to the private sector. Host why is Health Care Going like. Guest its doing that for 40 years and i suppose one of the main reasons as we mean they dont pay for health care with their own money. We are like people in other countries. They mainly pay for it with their time and somebody else hands over the money and employer Insurance Company or government. Host in your view should health care be tied to our employer . Guest two what . Host to our employer . Guest i would create a level playing field. You just get as much help if you buy insurance on your own as you do or can i get rid of all the while laws and then i would let the market decide. Employers have something to offer they will do it and if they dont they should be in the market. Host doesnt obamacare offer affordability . Guest oh no. Obamacare puts huge fines on employers who try to lie for their employees individually owned insurance. For while some employers say give the employee the money and let them buy their own insurance and obama has come along and said if you do that we are going to impose punitive fines are new. They are trying to stop it. Host john goodman would have would have congress repealed a radically changed obamacare if there is a republican elected in 2016 . Guest i would like to see universal tax credit, give everybody the same amount of Health Insurance regardless of where they get it and make sure its not affected by how people work or how many hours they work or how much they earn, really universal and then getting out of the way and letting people make their own choices and let the market compete. Host medical savings accounts. Something you have been involved with for a while. Guest Health Savings accounts called the father of Health Savings account is very key here. We need much more liberal Health Savings accounts laws that need to be flexible wrapping around any Third Party Insurance this could be the huge boon to the chronically ill many of whom would like to manage their own health care. They are going to do that they need to manage the money. Host john goodman you write as one of the problems, one of the six problems are one of the Six Solutions real insurance. What do you mean by real insurance . Guest president obama said we are going to end the discrimination against people with preexisting conditions but what we got is a bait and switch and its true that right now Insurance Companies cant turn you down or exclude you because of her preexisting illness but what we are seeing is this race to the bottom and exchanges. These very Narrow Network so if you are heart patient you can get and network and find out theres no hard doctor within 50 miles of you. That i think is intolerable and theres a much better way of doing it. I think the premium the individual pays shouldnt be based on his health but there needs to be in addition to that so the insurer gets an actuarially fair price as they do in the Medicare Advantage program. If that happens we will have insurers competing for the healthy and the second level playing field. Host some of the date we have had is whether or not health care is a right. Guest no place in the world has made health care right. If you live in canada you dont have a right to an mri scan. The language of rights distracts us from whats really happening. I think access to health care could be made much better in the United States and whats happening with obamacare cares going to make access worse for people in medicaid and subsidized plans and low income folks. Host medicaid as a competitor is one of your ideas. Guest i would let everybody join medicaid. The lat says we want public land to compete with the private sector. Let it be medicaid. With everybody medicaid get out and get a private plan if they want. As a wealthy person wants to going to medicaid and wait for his care he can do that. Most medicaid plans these days are run by private health plans but its still not very good. There are long waiting periods and private insurance is better. Host is a politically feasible to make medicaid and medicare a competitive option . Guest of course. As i said earlier i would like to see a uniform tax credit available to everyone. I would set that at 2500 for an adult 8000 for a family of four. Thats what im told the cost to put people into medicaid so thats enough money to get the medicaid insurance and i dont see any reason why you cant let people get medicaid themselves if they want about to but the vast majority people are not going to want to be in medicaid. Host john goodman independent institute, the Goodman Institute and heres the book a better choice, Health Care Solutions for america. I think every first lady should do something in this position to help the things she cares about. I just think that everything in the white house should be the best. The entertainment thats given here. I think it is good and a world where there is quite enough to divide people that we should cherish the language and emotion that unite us all. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] i think its been more than two minutes. Well good evening everybody. What a magnificent audience we have here tonight and im so thrilled to see all of you here at centennial hall. Also i would like to welcome all of the people in the overflow area which is in the back of the second floor and if any of you get tired of standing, there are seats Still Available there. Actually im just absolutely thrilled that Dale Russakoff chose the library to launch her brandnew book, her muchanticipated, her absolutely fascinating brandnew book, the prize with the subtitle whos in charge of americas schools. She will do it a series of interviews as she travels across the country to introduce her book to the public so we are really honored to be the first and we are also honored to be the venue where an extremely Important Community conversation will be taking place tonight. After all a Critical Role of libraries as you know this by Community Members to engage in discussions of important issues to that community. There is no doubt in my mind that tonights discussion will deal with one of the most pressing issues facing our city, but not only our city, cities across the country. There will be many questions. There are many questions that i would bet there will be some answers emerging from tonights discussion as well. I want to thank two people in particular for organizing this program. I would like them to stand up. The first is our president of the New York Public Library dr. Timothy crist. Please stand. [applause] and the other person is a newer member of our board of trustees rosemary steinfeld. Please stand up. [applause] there are other members here on our board. I wish they would stand up to. Ack sandy king in the back and trish are Vice President , jeremy johnson. Charles lenfant is here as well and i thank you all for your tremendous support. And to our staff because its really a job to pull Something Like this together so i have to say thank you to heidi kramer lida and all of our intel staff who have had a part in making this program come together. [applause] and a very very special thank you to the wonderful Victoria Foundation for their donation of 100 free books as giveaways to north residence educators. [applause] some of you have asked if additional books will be available and they will be available at the end of the program and dale will be here to sign them so you can line up after the program. As you know this is a panel format tonight and i have the pleasure of introducing Richard Roper who has agreed to moderate tonight panel. Few people know as much about or have been involved as long in public issues in newark in new jersey as Richard Roper. A graduate of rutgers new york mr. Grant is no government positions with the city of newark, the state of new jersey and the federal government. He has also taught at princeton university. Here in newark among his many roles he has been a deacon at ebony Baptist Church and a member of the boards of Brick City Development corporation. He also serves on the Rutgers University board of governors. So