The government bailout focuses so much on how complicated these mortgage-backed securities are. That they are, but that doesn't mean we should enter the going-out-of-business sale, throw up our hands, open our wallets, and say "sell us the items that aren't moving and name your price". These instruments *can* be understood, and it all starts with a new word that was used only by hard-core financial engineers and "quants" until last week: tranches.
