rock the financial markets. insurance giant aig teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. this is a colossal firm. if it fails, the ripples would travel far and wide throughout the global economy. >> all of a sudden, who would have dreamt this other bomb shell goes off, which is aia. if it you think lehman brothers was complicated to figure out, aig was monumentally bigger. >> aig is this massive insurance company, but they also had a division called aig financial products, which would offer something called a credit default swap. >> a credit default swap is a contract between two people, one of whom is giving insurance to the other that he will be paid in the event that a financial institution or a financial instrument fails. >> so it's an insurance contract? >> it is an insurance contract, but they have been very careful not to call it that. because. if it were insurance, it would