mr. jeffrey madrick. mr. madrick is a professor of economics at the new school of social research in new york city, the editor in chief of challenge magazine, and the author of the case for big government. after his song statement mr. moore -- opening statement mr. moore will the given an opportunity to make the opening statement. you may reserve until after the prosecution rests their case. mr. moore is the co-author of the book, the end of prosperity, and after the opening statements each attorney will call two witnesses who will be subject to cross-examination. then each side will make closing arguments. so, where is my jury in. >> right here. >> oh. where did they find this jury? [laughter] >> this is a jury of nobodies peers. did you pay to get in here? let me give you a few strucks, ladies and gentlemen. you will listen carefully to the opening statements and to the witnesses and you will be required to determine whether sufficient evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that mr. moore and his supply-side fre

mr. madrick is badgering my witness. >> mr. forbes, mr. moore isn't even sweating, so sit down. >> quickly. quickly. steve, mr. forbes, the federal reserve has lowered interest rates drastically before, not just in the early 2000's. the early 1990's. if i still have the memory i had only 10 years ago, i could find a couple of other incidents. why didn't we have a great housing boom, why didn't we have a collapse and a near depression then? >> the federal reserve lowered interest rates in the 1990's but not on the scale they did in 2000. we didn't have a year of 1% federal funds rates. that was a brand new thing, that was artificial, nothing to do with the market. so if you looked at the federal reserve -- in fact, in past times, sometimes with the fed has lowered interest rates artificially, like the early 1970's, it was because it was printing excess money and setting the stage for horrors down the road as happened in 1974 and 1975. so yes, the fed has may have had -- this wasn't the first time the fed has made mistakes, but what compound

mr. madrick. with the juror number one please wake up. [laughter] mr. moore to do you wish to make your opening statement at this time? >> ladies and gentlemen of the jury i submit it is not free market capitalism that should be on trial this evening it's socialism, it's a big government, its compassionate conservatism, it is chris dodd, barney frank, it's been bernanke, it's hank paulson -- [applause] your order is the people -- >> don't talk to me. >> if i hear any more help bursts like that i am going to put mr. moore in jail. [laughter] >> the people who move this country away from the free market system are the ones responsible for this crisis. let me submit to you all there is one reason the united states has become the richest country in the history of the world it is because of the free-market capitalist system and we should apologize for that. the times of the nation's history when our economy has faltered have been times we have moved away from free market capitalism and toward socialism and big government and submit to you ladies and gentleme