60 Minutes reports on the subprime mess

If you're like most people, you've seen the headlines about the subprime mess, collateralized debt obligations, structured investment vehicles, and a credit crunch -- but you're not really sure what it's all about, or how it ended up with big banks and pension funds losing billions.

Of course there are articles on it and soon there will be books -- But it's not very interesting. For a 15-minute look at what went wrong, you may want to watch this 60 Minutes special report.

What's amazing is how simple it was -- at its core, a straight-up ponzi scheme.