than it was the day before. >> it's the latest crisis to 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 the sudden who would have dreamed this other bombshell goes off that's aig. if you think loehmann 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've been very careful