The economic meltdown explained

I hereby trademark this explanation.

Mortgages, many of which are subprime = apples
Stocks = oranges
Bonds = pecans
Other investments = bananas

Rather than sell them separately, bankers decide to chop up all the investments and make them into a fruit salad. They sell small portions of the salad to other banks and investors.

Mortgages go into default, they discover that the apples have salmonella, and the whole fruit salad goes bad.

Government bails out the investment salad with some Fruit Fresh. Now it will cost a few thousand just to buy some peaches!