Understand how breakdowns in the Commercial Paper and Credit Default Swap markets got us here

Over the past few weeks, I have been searching for a good resource to help me understand the chain of events that started with the sub-prime mortgage crisis evolved into a $700B federal bailout. Although I do not claim to be any sort of expert on the subject, this episode from This American Life featured quite a few of them:

365: Another frightening show about the economy

Ira Glass and friends do an especially good job of linking the collapses of AIG and Lehman Brothers into the bigger pictures of the mortgage crisis and credit crunch. Definitely worth listening to, and really very frightening at times.