What Caused the Wall St. Mess?

This just in, Republicans in the House voted against the $700 Billion bailout plan put forth by the Bush office.

Here’s a humourous cartoon explaining how Wall St. structured the financial instruments that lead to the collapse and defaults we’re now seeing in the United States. The explanations in the news haven’t been very “Main St.” friendly, I think these stick-men do a good job of explaining it.

For further reading and reference, if you’re interested, check out what a Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) is as well.