The Credit Crisis: A Look Ahead

The House's rejection of the financial bailout plan on Monday flung the credit markets into further disarray.

The stock market may have taken a history making nosedive, but as CBS News Business Correspondent Anthony Mason reports, what's really worrying Wall Street are the credit markets, which are now at the heart of this financial crisis.

The stock market went into shock when the bailout bill failed, because credit is the grease that keeps the economy going. But for more than a week now, the credit markets have been virtually frozen.

How long before the economy is in deep trouble?

"Well, we're already in deep trouble," according to Stephen Massocca of Pacific Growth Equities. "And you know -- when does it become cataclysmic? It's hard to see. I don't think anyone knows for sure."

Banks are reluctant to lend money even to each other. Businesses can't borrow the cash they need. Without relief, says economist Mark Zandi, Main Street could feel the pain soon.

"We're gonna see it in the form of rising unemployment, job losses, cutbacks, even bankruptcies," Zandi says.

And if you sense we're already in a recession, then you ain't seen nothing yet.

"This would deepen that recession and potentially deepen it to the point where you would see the kind of economic deceleration we haven't seen since the 1930s," Massoca said.

That's because businesses that can't get access to credit can't hire workers. And that puts the brakes on the entire economy.

That's why traders are saying, without the promise of some kind of rescue package soon, the stock market may be in for more rocky days ahead.