feeling their pain. >> this is the biggest point drop that has ever been seen. >> we are in the midst of a serious financial crisis and the federal government is responding with decisive action. >> these guys have been gambling with the house money for years and it's our job to bail them out? >> the largest swindle in wall street history, and alleged 50 if you million dollar ponzi scheme by bernard madoff. >> you belong in jail, you criminal! >> the pardon is over. >> if there was any company that could make energy cool, it was enron. >> the texas energy broker treated electricity like any other commodity. it buys and sells billions of dollars worth of energy, every day. it's the largest company of its kind in the world. >> enron is a company that deals with everyone with absolute integrity. we play by all the rules and stand by our work. we mean what we say . >> ken lay was the original ceo, he ran enron when the company was created out of the merger of two pipeline companies. he seems like the ultimate success story. he hired jeff skilling. >> every year, every day, every week you have to come up with new ideas. >> he was very charismatic. when you heard a rob rock speech of his, you felt energized. i've likened him to a cult leader, he could get you to drink the kool-aid. >> we are looking to create open, competitive, fair markets, and prices are lower and customers get better service. >> you are the good guys. >> we are on the side of angels. >> the pendulum in business tends to swing too far in either direction, and this was an era of deregulation. >> the deregulation of the energy industry is causing one problem after another. >> enron was very good at weakening existing rules and regulations and taking advantage of the space between the rules. >> in the midst of this heatwave, and energy emergency has been declared in california. >> the energy crisis in california was not just a force of nature, it was a result of market manipulation by energy generators and producers like enron. >> i want you guys to get a little creative and come up with a reason to go down. >> we are just coming down for maintenance? >> right. >> and that's cool? >> hopefully . >> they were gaming the system, taking power plants off-line, and it was devastating to california's economy. >> they had to do a rolling blackout through the town and there was a red light they didn't see. >> they had strategies for california like get shorty, ricochet. >> enron's wholesale services revenues quadruple from $12 million-$48 billion, and doubled again, three months later. >> every time there was a price hike it's always collusion or conspiracy, but you know as well as i do that the price, it's nice for a business. you are in the business of making money for your shareholders, right? so, you would be foolish to turn down the kind of money you can make in california. -- >> i think you put words in my mouth. >> what happened in california was a flashing red signal about the nature of what enron was all about. but what brought them down was just the sheer brazen and the spoke of their manipulation. >> the snc is investigating the procedures after the company admitted it inflating earnings by more than $1 billion. >> enron had businesses that were losing immense amounts of money so the ceo found extremely creative accounting methods in order to hide the losses, hide the debt, show investors profits that didn't actually exist yet in order to please wall street and keep the stock price high. >> it was revealed that in the same period, when an in-house whistleblower name sharon watkins was privately warning the chairman that i am incredibly nervous that we won't implode in a wave of accounting scandals, he was ensuring employees that i've never felt better about the prospects for the company and in fact, urging them to buy more company stock. >> leadership knew that we cook the books and yet, ken lay through the fall of 2021 was selling stock. >> they got theirs but we are not going to get hours . >> putin and others who work for enron or a subsidiary, saw their retirement nest eggs made up heavily of enron shares wiped out this month. worse they are powerless to stop the hemorrhaging because enron had block them from making any changes in their retirement plan. >> when i saw the stock drop i called to sell, and was told i was locked out. so i had to stand by and watch my savings disappear. >> many of the nation's top banks and mutual funds were also invested in enron, the company is widely expected to become the this bankruptcy case in history. >> enron was the moment that we realized that so much of the business world was not what we thought. >> something is very wrong in the case of enron. a lot of knowledgeable people on wall street, were either duped or purposefully went along for the ride at the expense of thousands of others. >> this is not a story of a few bad people, this is a story of a lot of bad people. they were aided and abetted by accountants, lawyers, there was no cop on the beat, you've got to put limits on the greed that drives a whole lot of people. >> they were once among the most celebrated business leaders in america. tonight, they are convicted felons. >> enron was just the first domino, it was followed by worldcom by healthsouth, by tyco, one accounting fraud after another, on and on and on. >> this belief that giant corporations are going to be restrained from running amok, it was revealed in this decade to be basically a fairy story we tell ourselves that night so we can sleep better. >> no executive is too prominent or too powerful, and those scheme to defraud is to fancy to avoid the long arm of the law. we got the house! you did! pods handles the driving. pack at your pace. store your things until you're ready. then we deliver to your new home - across town or across the country. pods, your personal moving and storage team. will you pause it real quick? 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will help many low income buyers to overcome that hurdle. and to achieve an important part of the american dream. >> this was everything americans were supposed to want, the security and stability of owning their own home. so you were supposed to borrow money, maybe even stretch a little bit because after all, since the great depression, on average, nationwide home prices had only gone up. >> there's only one area of the economy that has stood its ground was the home market. hopes of real estate will offer not only a safe haven but will gain value. >> john and kamal carter are joining the growing number of first-time homebuyers, convinced the time is right thanks to dropping interes t rates. >> it's kind of amazing where like we've got to buy something this week. >> everyone was talking about property. they saw buying a house as the main way to get wealth. house prices kept going up so it seemed like a no risk no- brainer thing to do . >> across the usa on mortgage applications at an all-time high last week . >> current homeowners taking advantage of lower interest rates, too, refinancing their homes. as americans seek to lower payments and put more cash in their wallets. >> everyone wants a piece of the american dream. >> there was this rampant fear of missing out. people started flipping houses, they were quitting their jobs to buy houses, and to sell them at a higher price. >> i don't see a bubble, i see prices continuing to climb. >> there was a sort of euphoria where the american dream of owning a home converged with the american dream of risk free investments. or, you might say, the risk of minutes of risk th e two free investments. >> new members alton i suggest more than ever that the housing sector of the american economy is something of a house of cards. >> the housing bubble started to come undone in 2006 and 2007, and suddenly, people started to default, and then they started to default in big numbers. it really became a domino effect. that devastated whole communities. >> from bad to worse in the mortgage meltdown. home prices experience their biggest drop in more than 20 years. >> 2 out of 10 about their homes in the last two years are already upside down. >> there were good intentions in this country about increased homeownership but in the last years of the bubble, that's groundcover for some very pernicious activities. >> in the last six months, americans have seen their investment shrink, property values plummet, and the country edge closer towards a recession, and at the heart of the problem is something called the subprime mortgage crisis. >> loans made to borrowers with low credit scores or no many money for a down payment, are commonly called, subprime mortgages, and the market for them has exploded in this country of late. >> there's some decent decent aspects of sub prime loans, an effort to reach people whose credit isn't as good, and effort to give them the ability to move up and reach the homeownership dream. >> like so much else, it starts as a good idea that eventually gets perverted. honestly, the history of the modern age of finance is that. >> washington has pretty much failed miserably for the last 10 to 20 years as the mortgage lending market has changed >> what washington has been concerned about is make it easier for lenders to give loans. >> it became possible to walk in with no income and maybe not even using your real name. people were saying, you're going to give me a mortgage when i don't have money in the bank, when i can lie on my form, and sign it and you'll give me the money anyway, essentially giving me a free option to buy a home, i'll do that all day long. >> one company considered an innovator in these loans and aggressively pursue the market was countrywide financial, they made a fortune and so did its ceo. >> this may well become the deeply tanned face of the mortgage mess, the face belongs to angela mozilla, that once celebrated ceo of countrywide for facing organizations of predatory lending and rapacious greed. >> i do take full responsibility for anything that happens at countrywide. >> mortgage lenders, concocted a whole series of loan products , peddling them aggressively to people who did not have the ability to pay those loans back. >> when they say sign here, sign here, and they tell you that they told you everything that's important about the loan, you think they have and you just sign. >> i just feel so stupid. >> the whole system was designed to go after people with marginal means and then to put them in the highest cost loan possible because those are the loans that paid the most fees. >> the banks didn't have to care anymore about whether the loan got paid back because the loan had been sold to wall street. >> instead of keeping the dicey loans in their own portfolios, the big banks and giant mortgage companies that were originally underwritten, sold them off to big investment houses. >> firms sliced the loans into little pieces, package them up with other investments and sold them to the best customers around the world as high yield targets backed securitie s. >> consider buying one mortgage, they would take 1000, put them into a package and cut them into 1000 pieces, and sell the pieces, as a much safer investment. >> the idea was all of this was diversified in 100 different ways, everyone had little pieces of it and therefore, if one of the little pieces went down the other piece wouldn't go down but that was the fallacy about the whole scheme. >> from main street to wall street, the numbers are for boating. >> they are rising so fast they could soon involve one in 100 american homes. >> the fact that millions of americans are getting mortgages they should have never had, that's kind of an isolated market 's doing, he's ready . virus, but wall street, that sent the virus all around the world. s... how you collect coins. your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. the first time 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( ♪ ) ( ♪ ) you found the one. now find the ring at zales, the diamond store. oh! it's daylight saving time. what's the big deal? gasp! what's the big deal? what's the big deal? what's the big deal? what's the big deal? ♪marching band music♪ ♪marching band music♪ i'll get a cart. get two! scotts daylawn saving is the biggest deal of the year. stock up early and save up to $20 dollars on the best scotts products. introducing new sweet and savory crepes. for a limited time, buy one, get one free. with five flavors that are delicious any time of day. only from ihop. download the app and earn free food with every order. everything's changing so quickly. before the xfinity 10g network, we didn't have internet that let us play all at once. every device? in every room? why are you up here? when i was your age, we couldn't stream a movie when the power went out. you're only a year older than me. you have no idea how good you've got it. huh? what a time to be alive. introducing the next generation 10g network. only from xfinity. the future starts now. there's no shortage of evidence showing a u.s. economy either already in recession or heading there every day, there's a new shock to the system. >> the housing slump has turned many lives in bank accounts upside down. >> economists say the nation is at increasing risk of recession, what do you say? >> i say the fundamentals of our nations economy are strong. >> firms begin to announce losses from some prime mortgage- backed securities but the idea was, this is under control and been been a key who was the chairman of the federal reserve and pulse and was secretary of treasury said this is contained. >> a u.s. economy is resilient. i believe our economy will continue to grow although at a lesser pace than we saw . >> paulson had been the chief executive of goldman sachs, so he was an insider, for better or worse. he knew where the bodies were buried. >> testified before a house committee, federal reserve chairman threw his weight behind the stimulus package. >> bernanke was an expert in the great depression. he was trying to avoid another . >> the fallout from the mortgage mess deep in today. a major wall street firm reported its first quarterly loss in its 84 year history. >> bear stearns was an investment bank and investment banks are not the same as banks, they don't have small depositors, you and i cannot go in and open up a account. they are sophisticated investors who do and should know the risk of the institution when they do business. >> bear stearns was one of wall street's major firms with a riskier, edgier reputation. >> where goldman sachs is the queen and morgan stanley went to harvard, bear stearns was the guy flipping the bird in the corner. and it had probably a greater percentage of this toxic sludge mortgage-backed securities in its vaults than anyone else. >> the firm has been buffeted by constant rumors of a looming liquidity problem. they maintain that the capital petitions are all strong. >> questioning a wall street's firm liquidity is akin to yelling fire in a crowded movie house. >> should i be worried about bear stearns in terms of liquidity, no! bear stearns is fine, do not take your money out. >> our liquidity position has not changed at all. our balance sheet has not weakened at all. >> if you have to prove that you have credit, you don't have any. if you have to prove these assets are worth what you say they are, they are not. that daunting fear that all of these mortgages might not be strong and reliabl e, suddenly had everybody second-guessing. >> for weeks there have been whispers of trouble at bear stearns, by today's opening bell it was a full-blown alarm. >> this morning schwartz said the firm's cash position had deteriorated sharply over the past day. >> the rumor became the reality. >> who could possibly imagine bear stearns after 85 years of profitability never having a losing quarter would have a losing quarter in the fourth quarter of 2007 and be out of business 2.5 months later. >> the fact that a wall street firm could lose 90% of its value in one weekend has some convinced the market in the economy have further to fall. he met most of the country was looking at this as one investment firm that maybe you have heard of or not, is teetering, it's a very different story in washington. >> investment bank collapse, one as big as bear stearns, is what wall street experts would have called an economic nightmare scenario. >> is the good news, it's been averted. bear stearns has been bailed out by the government and now, they've been bought out by a competitor. >> the government had never stepped in before, in the history of our republic. but the fed decided to change that because they decided it wasn't because bear stearns was too big to fail as we like to say, it was too interconnected to fail. >> the fed knows this is just one firm. when one tall building on wall street falls, is probably going to land on another one which could land on another one. was that institutional risk, the idea that you might have an uncontrollable fire on wall street that considered bernanke and the policymakers. >> the big question is, are there other banks in a situation similar to bear stearns right now, is this just the beginning? >> our financial institutions are very strong, and i am convinced they are going to come out of this situation very strong. our markets are resilient, flexible, and i'm quite confident we will work our way through the situation. >> after bear stearns collapsed, people thought, we dodged that bullet. the sense was, it was a rip, not a bombshell. >> no question about it. wall street got drunk and now it's got a hangover. the question is how long will it sober up? relapsing ms isn't the only thing i have going on. that's why my doctor and i chose kesimpta. kesimpta is different. it's the only b-cell treatment for rms i can take at home once a month. kesimpta was proven superior at reducing the rate of relapses, active lesions and slowing disability progression vs aubagio. for me, a once-monthly treatment just works for my schedule. don't take kesimpta if you have hepatitis b, and tell your doctor if you have had it, as it could come back. kesimpta can cause serious side effects, including infections. while no cases of pml were reported in rms clinical trials, it could happen. tell your doctor if you had or plan to have vaccines, or if you are or plan to become pregnant. kesimpta may cause a decrease in some types of antibodies. the most common side effects are upper respiratory tract infection, headache, and injection reactions. when i'm ready, i spend less than 1 minute a month taking kesimpta. how i spend the rest of my time is up to me. ask your doctor about treating rms with kesimpta. introducing the new sleep number climate360 smart bed. the only smart bed in the world that actively cools, warms and effortlessly responds to both of you. our smart sleepers get 28 minutes more restful sleep per night. proven quality sleep. only from sleep number. wall street is bracing for another possible victim of the housing and credit crisis. lehman brothers, one of the largest and oldest brokerage firms in the country has been experiencing what many fear is a slow death because the demise of its rival, bear stearns, back in april. >> there had been rumblings that when bear went down, lehman would be in severe trouble, and their ceo had been warned that you may be next. >> paulson, who knew him from his golden days had sat down with him and said you might want to think of finding a partner, someone with a bigger balance sheet, and he famously dismissed those as absurd and complete the unnecessary. >> wall street is on edge after weekend of talks and rescuing the struggling investment bank. >> all weekend, top executives of rival banks along with officials met under tight security to discuss plans to buy lehman, whole or in part. >> lehman is on the ropes. every ceo of virtually all the big banks get a phone call. get down to the federal reserve. pearlson had been lambasted for effectively bailing out bear stearns so he sat all of the ceos in a room and said it's your problem, fix it. >> loud and clear. when i was talking to folks at the treasury on friday, they were saying, look, we are trying to find a buyer but let's be clear, we are not going to use taxpayer money. >> people believe that if lehman went under the panic might spread the people were equally worried that if they build lehman out it would be this idea of moral hazard. if you believe that the government will bail you out, why wouldn't you make these decisions. >> you don't restore confidence by rescuing one institution after another, after another. >> that friday, i don't think any of them or any of us realized how bad it was going to get, we were terrified but not terrified enough . >> lehman brothers for 158 years a cornerstone on wall street. failure to find a buyer over the weekend means it's now bankrupt. >> merrill lynch hearing it could be next, agreed in an act of desperation to a shotgun marriage with bank of america. >> now we are left with morgan stanley and goldman sachs, there are two left out of five. >> when they third bankruptcy, i cannot explain to you the shock and awe in the investment community. >> if lehman can go down, what does that mean about the health of the financial system? >> you are talking about investment banks, how have they been getting it wrong for so long. >> they say on wall street nothing happens until the lines of fear and greed cross, and there's no better example of the lines of fear and greed crossing been the lehman bankruptcy on september 15, 2008. >> the markets were fearful. our future at stake. >> this is a once in a half- century probably once in a century type of event. >> is it the worst you've ever seen? >> by far. >> because you've let lehman go under, the shock in the financial world that morgan stanley will go under and goldman sachs will go under and now you've got panic. >> the american people can remain confident with the soundness and resilience of our financial system. >> nobody understood what was happening. they couldn't believe that these grand institutions were abou t to come undone. and they were waking up in the morning and finding out it was worse today 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 a sudden, who would have dreamt this other bombshell goes off, which is aig and if 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. >> that's it contract between two people, one of whom is giving insurance to the other, that he will be paid in the event in the event that the financial institution fails. >> it's an insurance contract. >> it is an insurance contract that they been very careful not to call it that, because if it were insurance, it would be regulated. >> aig essentially facilitated the creation of a lot of these mortgage securities by essentially providing an insurance policy, should they go bad. but, because the derivatives market had been deregulated, aig could do this without any requirement to put up any reserves. it's like an insurance company is selling you a life insurance policy and not having any money when the time came to pay off and the time came to pay off. >> after its credit rating was downgraded overnight, aig must raise at least 40 billion dollars, and fast. >> you had a full scale run on aig, and there was a real view by the way, that if aig went under, the game was over. >> aig does business with every major financial institution and in 130 countries. >> aig will destroy much of the capital for nation process in the western world. >> paulson, bernanke, gardner, they saw the risk that this could be not just a fire that would burn wall street down, but that could burn down our economy, and burn down the world economy. >> it's uncle sam to the rescue but oh, what a price tag . >> the federal government is to saving aig from possible collapse with an 85 billion dollar loan, all of it, your money. >> the move was designed to bring stability to the financial markets, did it work? maybe, down the road but not today. >> another anxiety attack on wall street, even after the aig out bailout, the dow tumbled another 450 points. >> in your 30 years, have you ever seen the market like this? >> no, never. >> it doesn't feel like they are in control, and that is unsettling. next on behind the series... let me tell you about the greatest roster ever assembled. the monster, the outlaw... and you can't forget about the boss. sometimes- you just want to eat your heroes. the subway series. the greatest menu of all time. was also the first time your profits left you speechless. at the counter or on the go, save 20% with the lowest transaction fees and keep more of what you make. start saving today at godaddy.com oh! it's daylight saving time. what's the big deal? gasp! what's the big deal? what's the big deal? what's the big deal? what's the big deal? ♪marching band music♪ ♪marching band music♪ i'll get a cart. get two! scotts daylawn saving is the biggest deal of the year. stock up early and save up to $20 dollars on the best scotts products. we got the house! you did! pods handles the driving. pack at your pace. store your things until you're ready. then we deliver to your new home - across town or across the country. pods, your personal moving and storage team. ♪hit it!♪ ♪it takes two to make a thing go right♪ ♪ ♪it takes two to make it outta sight♪ ♪it takes two to make a thing go right♪ ♪ ♪it takes two to make it outta sight♪ ♪one, two, get loose now! it takes two to make a-♪ ♪it takes two to make a- it takes two to make a-♪ ♪it takes two to make a- it takes two to make a-♪ ♪it takes two to make a-♪ stay two nights and get 8,000 bonus points. book now at bestwestern.com introducing new sweet and savory crepes. for a limited time, buy one, get one free. with five flavors that are delicious any time of day. only from ihop. download the app and earn free food with every order. 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enough to calm terrified investors that the next disaster is not around the corner. >> banks are hoarding cash. >> banks are nervous about giving loans for appliances, cars, homes, making wall street's troubles a main street issue and potentially putting economic recovery even further out of reach. >> the markets are freezing. the whole american economy is built on the ability to lend and borrow and invest and all of a sudden, companies throughout the country who borrowed because they are buying equipment and need to make payroll, they can't borrow. millions of people started losing their jobs. >> we are close to a depression, forget the recession. >> where my going to deposit a check, bernanke and paulson were really concerned about whether or not people would be able to go to an atm. >> the treasury secretary told congress that a bailout is the only way to prevent a collapse. >> america's economy is facing unprecedented challenges. and we are responding with unprecedented action. >> it's no stretch to say that after this week the era of big government is back. >> it's an urgent request from the bush administration to congress, for $700 billion to quickly stabilize the financial system. >> thursday afternoon we started to hear about this thing called tarp and it had many different variations, what it was going to be but basically, they were going to infuse capital directly into some of these companies pray >> this troubled asset relief program must be properly designed and sufficiently large to have maximum impact while including features that protect the taxpayer to the maximum possible. >> the $700 billion project the price tag isn't pretty, but the president says, it's a big package because it's a big problem. >> my first instinct was to let the market work until i realized while and being briefed by the expert, of how significant this problem behave, so, i decided to act, and act boldly. >> george bush understands that he has to put his ideology aside, put 30 years of small government, no taxes, small budget, aside, because, the country needs it and the economy needs it. >> the opposition seems to be growing here in congress for the legislation that could be the most important of bushes pregnant presidency. >> this is a huge cow patty with a piece of marshmallow stuck in the middle of it. >> please don't betray this nation's great history. >> main street went to wall street to protest the bailout plan. >> people say why give the banks money, we could give money to homeowners to pay off their mortgage, is it fair that a company that should be going bankrupt is getting a handout? >> of this goes through, they just mortgaged our future. >> there were a lot of people shouting, let them fail, they got themselves into this position and it's survival of the fittest and this is what capitalism looks like. >> the last thing in the world i wanted to do was be going up to congress, asking for these kinds of things. it is a terrible position to be in. the only thing worse is the alternative. >> if the credit markets are not functioning, or houses will be foreclosed upon. the economy will not be able to recover. >> i know that we will be able to live up to our side of the bargain. i hope the republicans will, too. >> good day and what a day it's been so far, the presence financial bailout plan has suffered a major defeat. >> they go to capitol hill and the bill fails, the results are dramatic. >> wall street watched washington with shock and fear as the bailout package went down on capitol hill, the dow went down like a sub. >> this is the biggest point drop that's ever been seen. there's virtually no american is not feeling this. >> you just wiped out everybody's 401(k). >> this is pure discuss, zero confidence. none. >> paulson called me that night, stunned and scared. people were days away from not being able to take money out of the atm. and it was happening around the world, not just the u.s. it was more dangerous than anything we've seen since the great depression and we were effectively out of ammunition. >> two days after the house killed a rescue package, the senate leadership is determined to pass it tonight and pressure the house into taking action. >> to democrats and republicans who have opposed this plan, i say, step up to the plate, let's do what's right for the country at this time because the time to act is now. >> if we fail to act, years of our economy will grind to a halt. >> this is the greatest market disruption that has happened since the crash of 1929. reality finally imposes itself on capitol hill. >> the motion is adopted. >> given a second chance the house did an about-face, easily passing the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry. >> there were moments this week when some thought the federal government could not rise to the challenge. thanks to the hard work of both parties, and both houses, and the spirit of cooperation between capitol hill and my administration, we completed this bill in a timely manner. >> the aftermath, people criticized paulson for this that and the other and that's fine but the truth is, if he hadn't been there and they hadn't intervened, we never would have crawled out of that hole. >> they rescue the financial system. like it or not. you can wish all day long that they have gone down the tubes but i really don't think we would have enjoyed that, one bit. >> >> there are new details tonight about what may be the largest swindle in wall street history, an alleged $50 billion ponzi scheme by former nasdaq chairman bernard madoff. >> what would you say to all those people that lost money? what would you say to them? >> when you have a collapse on wall street, i always think of it as the water going out of a lake or something. and suddenly you can see the roots of those trees. you can see all the ugly stuff that gets caught in them, including like dead bodies. and that's how i feel like that the water went down so much and everybody was like, that's bernie madoff down there. >> a wall street wiz with a golden reputation. bernie madoff earned trust from many of his clients because he made the money. lots of it. or so they thought. >> bernie madoff was a modern day dr. jekyll and mr. hyde. he had a legitimate life that was highly successful, and he had this darker secret that fed his need for success. >> madoff allegedly had been using new investment money from clients to pay supposed profits out to other investors. under the weight of a tumbling stock market, the scheme had collapsed. >> desperate investors and their lawyers scrambled to madoff's east side offices friday looking for their money. they were turned away in the lobby. >> there has never been a ponzi scheme on the scale of madoff ever. we're talking thousands of people who thought that they had millions of dollars socked away for retirement, suddenly found out it was gone. >> rose and jack lass say they invested every penny of their savings with madoff. >> we started to sell our furniture, some of our things that we value, so that we should have some money immediately. >> then there's 91-year-old ian thiermann. he had to take a job at a grocery store after losing $700,000 to madoff. >> the human suffering that madoff caused, i don't think we can ever fully grasp. homes had to be sold, college educations truncated. people had to come out of retirement, go to work at whatever job they could get. and for those people, the madoff fraud is never going to be over. >> what may very well be the final steps of freedom for perhaps the most despised man in america, bernie madoff entered a federal court in manhattan today and pleaded guilty to the greatest investor fraud in u.s. history. >> i think the connection between bernie madoff and the financial crisis was one fundamentally about trust. it was about a loss of trust in the system, about a loss of trust in people that you thought were worthy. >> we all trusted the free enterprise system. we trusted these deregulated markets to foster our prosperity. all of america felt that they had been betrayed by wall street. >> the stock market just can't seem to find a bottom. >> it's day after day, week after week, and it's hurting the public morale. >> there is a deep sense across the country that those who were not responsible for this crisis are bearing a greater burden than those who were. >> the scariest thing about that time was that the united states had already thrown a lot at this problem, and the recession was getting much worse. we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. >> just this weekend, there was a job fair at dodger stadium, 500 jobs available for ushers, food workers, security, $9 to $18 an hour, part-time, 500 jobs. 4,500 showed up. >> it's a lot of competition. i'm 55 years old trying to get a job. it's heartbreaking. >> millions of people lost their jobs, millions lost their homes, cities and towns were devastated. on the other hand, wall street survived, quite nicely, i might add. >> after they got their $84 billion bailout, aig executives spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on fancy hotels and spa treatments. >> they were getting their manicures, their facials, their pedicures, and their massages, while the american people were footing the bill. >> your company is now bankrupt, our economy is in a state of crisis, but you get to keep $480 million. >> it's been a continuing source of frustration that, essentially, no one at the big banks was ever prosecuted or held accountable for this. >> i do not think that we did anything wrong. we did not cause the financial crisis. >> there were a lot of people who made a lot of mistakes. the question is whether they were criminal mistakes. it was hard to make the case. >> you belong in jail! you belong in jail, you criminal! >> you should go to jail! >> there's just part of us that wants justice, and sometimes justice is not what you should be asking for. you should sometimes just realize a system's broken and needs to be fixed. that said, wall street never changes. >> there's always going to be people out there who are paid to try to find a loophole, or if there's a regulation, to try to roll back the regulation. it never ends. it never will end. >> that's why wall street has always been a very dangerous place, and it remains a very dangerous place. there's plenty of reasons why the same thing could happen again in the near term. >> $10, we can book a loop, we can buy the cure, but you won't get burned on wall street. $10. $10. right here. >> the results of a new survey from cbs news and the new york times reveal the financial hardship is taking a psychological toll on families. but there's one silver lining in an otherwise heartbreaking report. the challenge has motivated people to learn new skills, and more than half are confident their next job will be as good as their last. though the american dream has evaporated for some families, at least for now, american optimism has proved to be a renewable resource, and perhaps the most important tool on the road to our recovery. >> television on. >> hbo did a lot of its best work when it was bending a genre. take something that's familiar,