60 Minutes' Steve Kroft looks at what caused the financial crisis and the under-capitalized house of cards built on shifting sands that the financial giants thought would bring them big money with little risk. It also shows how the bailout money for which Congress capitulated to Bush and Paulson's pleas will do nothing to fix the problem.
On Friday Congress finally passed - and President Bush signed into law - a financial rescue package in which the taxpayers will buy up Wall Street's bad investments.
The numbers are staggering, but they don't begin to explain the greed and incompetence that created this mess.
It began with a terrible bet that was magnified by reckless borrowing, complex securities, and a vast, unregulated shadow market worth nearly $60 trillion that hid the risks until it was too late to do anything about them.
