UNITED STATES -- As the Dow Jones Industrial tumbled below 10,000 for the first time in four years, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform questioned a Lehman Brothers executive, looking for answers into what led to the financial Crisis on Wall Street.
"The repercussions of this collapse have reverberated across our economy. Many experts think Lehman's fall triggered the credit freeze that is choking our economy and that made the $700 billion rescue necessary," said Representative Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
The Federal Reserve has already made some of that $700 billion available for borrowing, still, banks are too afraid to lend. Timid investors have come to the realization that Bush's plan won't thaw the credit freeze immediately. Despite the increased turmoil, the president says he's still confident the bailout was necessary.
For the first time in four years, the stock market fell below the 10,000 mark. At one point, the Down was down nearly 800 points. Capital Tonight's Erin Billups has the latest on what happened on Wall Street and what the experts say about why.
Had we not done anything, people like the folks behind me would be a lot worse off. We'll make sure, as time goes on, this doesn't happen again. In the meantime, we got to solve the problem," President Bush said.
The problem continues to spiral out of control. International traders are now looking past America's troubles, focusing more on Europe's growing financial crisis. Russia suffered its largest one-day loss and stocks in Latin America and Asia also plummeted. The president says things may look bad now but says they will eventually get better on Wall Street. He's now asking for patience.
"It's going to take a while to get in place a program that, one, is effective; two, that doesn't waste taxpayers' money. We don't want to rush into this situation and not have the program be effective. It's going to take a while to restore confidence in the financial system," Bush said.
The treasury and Fed have pledged to move as quickly and methodically as is possible on the rescue plan. In the meantime, they're hoping investors will once again start to feel safe taking some sort of risk. Without money moving into the markets, things will only get worse.