Here's a fairly easy essay on how AIG and the CDS market came to be...
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover
It's eight pages, but it's written in layman's terms, so should be understandable without a finance background.
Duke
Dork
4/2/09 10:01 p.m.
It's also written by Rolling Stone, so it will have absolutely nothing but drooling love for the Democrats and absolute withering scorn for the Republicans. I'd trust Wikipedia for fair and unbiased information before I'd ever read anything political out of that rag.