The financial turmoil has led to a lack of trust between financial organizations and freezing up of the credit markets. As with most things in life, the best way to appreciate the current situation is through the lens of history.

In the 1800s, there was no central money system. Banks printed their own money from state to state and people had to decide if they trusted money from a given bank.

Well, that's where Wall Street is today. Banks don't trust the IOUs they hold from other banks. In all the layers of the commercial paper market, nobody trusts anybody else's paper. This is a key part of the freezing up of the credit market that Bush keeps talking about.