Wall Street bankers allegedly profited from the many mortgage loans that began to sour back in 2008, in some cases possibly pocketing money that was collected on the mortgages. Louise Story, Wall Street and finance reporter for  The New York Times, examines this theory, which surfaced in a recently unsealed lawsuit against a mortgage unit at Bear Stearns. She follows a money trail that seems to lead back to some shady action on Wall Street.

The death of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has been a long time in the making. For the past four decades the way homes have been financed in this country has been dictated by a kind of public-private partnership. Fannie and Freddie bought mortgages from banks and sold them to investors in the form of securities. The system worked because the government implied that if homeowners defaulted, the government would be there to bail those loans out. In 2008 the government essentially did that during the housing crisis. But now the two companies are political untouchable.

Will the cost of our national debt drop soon as a result of the recently passed banking reform? And will that change the political debate in Washington over raising our debt ceiling?

Each week in our "Do-It-Yourself Bailout" series, we talk about how we can all get into better financial shape and bail ourselves out of debt. This week: credit scores.

One week after meeting with the heads of major banks, President Obama is scheduled to meet with the leaders of small and community banks today. He is likely to make the same request to them as he did the big banks: 'Please lend more.' With major banks taking up most of the headlines all year long, we wanted to take a look at how community banks are doing, and the answer may surprise you. Mike Menzies is the president and CEO of a small community bank, Easton Bank and Trust in Easton, M.D. – he says his bank will finish the year with a profit, but fears the next couple of years will be rough. David Gillen is finance editor for The New York Times, and says that community banks have actually done well despite the constant reports of bank closings.

One of the largest lenders in the country to small businesses, CIT Group, may be headed for collapse. CIT is working to present restructuring plans to federal regulators by the end of today. New York Times finance reporter Louise Story joins us with the details.

Just a year ago, the government stepped in and took over struggling mortgage and loan security giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They were the first major companies deemed "too big to fail," although they would not be the last.  One year after the takeover, both Fannie and Freddie are reporting huge profits.  The times, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, might just be a-changin'.

Joining us to tell us where these gains are coming from and what we've learned in our year of nationalized mortgage lending is Louise Story, Wall Street and finance reporter for the New York Times.

Remember way back when Congress handed out $350 billion to bailout the financial services industry? Well people are starting to wonder where that money went. New York Times reporter, Eric Lipton, has been following the billions of dollars that was given out to banks and lending institutions across the nation and finds that a lot of banks are just holding on to their funds. He joins us now, hot on the trail of all that money.

Read Eric Lipton's article, In Michigan, Bank Lends Little of Its Bailout Funds, in today's New York Times