Now comes word that even a money market fund is losing money for investors. Scott Jagow turns to economics correspondent Chris Farrell to find out what he's telling people to make them feel better.
Commentator David Frum sees the point some are making about the credit crisis — that what's needed to fix things is the strong hand of government. But he strongly disagrees.
The government's been throwing cash around willy-nilly to bail out Bear Stearns, AIG and Fannie and Freddie. Where's all that money coming from? And how often can Bernanke and Paulson keep going back to that well? John Dimsdale reports.
In the year-and-a-half since Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the credit crisis would be contained, the markets have kept a mostly cautious stance. But a couple of weeks ago things changed — and not for the better. Bob Moon reconstructs the course of events.
Kai Ryssdal takes us back to the point at which the financial markets' problems began — five years ago when the Fed made it cheap to borrow money and Wall Street took advantage, devising complicated investment schemes that hid their high risk.
A lot of well-known investment houses are gone now — remember E.F. Hutton? Bob Moon talks with a former Goldman Sachs partner about what it will take for investment banks to survive from now on.
The government is lending insurance giant AIG $85 billion in exchange for an 80 percent stake in the company. Is this a good deal for the government? Stacey Vanek-Smith talks to economist Mark Zandi.
The federal government let Lehman Brothers die this week, so why is it coming to the aid of AIG? Was the insurance giant really just too big to fail? Scott Jagow puts the question to Jeremy Hobson in New York.
The $1.7 billion deal also saves about 10,000 jobs. Those workers are relieved, but Lehman didn't get the price it wanted. Megan Williams talks to a financial analyst about how this affects the global market.
What's up with the free marketeers in the Bush Administration rushing to help out the big firms on Wall Street? Commentator Robert Reich looks back at the last few years to find what started this mess.
