Our economy is on even shakier ground after the U.S. House of Representatives shoots down a $700 billion financial bailout package. We go back to school, to explain the ABC's of what the bailout's failure means for us.

"Any other questions?" Rockford College Economics Professor Fred Razazadeh asks his class.
Questions are a hot commodity right now as stocks plummet and lawmakers continue to struggle for a Wall Street bailout deal. For answers to how the process impacts you and me, we took a lesson from a Rockford College economics professor.

"The impact in what happens in the financial market is through the credit market," says Professor Razazadeh.
He adds the longer we go without a bailout, the tighter credit will become. That means it will be harder to borrow money to make down payments on homes, or expand businesses.

"There will be a decline in expenditure, that eventually translates to a decline in employment and a decline in the level of economic activity," says Razazadeh.

Razazadeh says if you're close to retirement you may want to consider pulling out the stock market, while younger workers are unlikely to feel real hardship in the long run.

A group of Rockford College business students says while their parents are worried, they have no hesitations about entering the financial field, or staying in the stock market.
"Buy low, sell high and right now all of my, in my portfolio, I'm still investing more and more money," says MBA student Jeremiah Bundy.

The main objection standing in the way of a bailout deal, is that the package doesn't do enough to help homeowners going through foreclosure, while it saves the big guys at the top. But these students say those homeowners could have used an economics lesson of their own.
"They talk about Wall Street and Main Street like the two are completely disconnected, and from my standpoint there's a certain amount of accountability that has to go with those folks that essentially borrowed more than they could afford," says MBA student Bill Kalma.

Students and teachers agree, legislators now can't afford to wait to bring a return to stability.

Professor Razazadeh says the other way to go would be to provide incentives to people and businesses to encourage them to continue spending money, stay in the market and grow business.
Lawmakers are expected to debate a new deal later this week.