jeff madrick. the floor is yours. >> thank you. carroll has been a very close friend. [applause] when i was struggling to be good on camera i would look in in the of how good she was naturally. here we are today wondering, of course, how we got here. i want to thank all of you at hue-man books for inviting me to talk. kim and i now live in this community. we are delighted to be here. we had to protect our house from the ravaging hudson river the other day, the hurricane. in fact, we did not have to come as it turned out. well, the rain was pretty bad. in any case let me get on with the subject because it does change. i was calling to come to talk about how we got here. and i am going to talk about how we got here. then it started to occur to me that we don't even know where we are. four years ago, four years ago ben bernanke, the chairman of the federal reserve and a bright and i believe well meaning is often misdirected man said, if those sub prime mortgages collapse those mortgages made to people who have low incomes and poor credit and were often conned into taking

[applause] >> for more information on jeff madrick and his work, visit jeffmadrick.com. >> up next, syndicated columnist mark steyn argues that the united states is destined for financial collapse and the decline in its role as a world leader, if current political and cultural norms continue. the author contends that american debt has placed the country in a precarious position, and that regulation and lack of innovation has become hallmarks of the country's business climate. mark steyn speaks at the new hampshire institute of politics and political library at saint anselm college in manchester, new hampshire. [applause] >> good evening. looks like a lot of people happy to be here. very excited to everybody here to hear the musical theater critic? [laughter] you think i'm joking? one thing you're going to learn tonight, ladies and gentlemen, is that the guy that you are here to see, who's named mark steyn, is a decent user of false notions. most of you think you were here to hear a critic, and author, a commentator. let me begin by just reviewing a little bit of his life, because i think one o