Okay, as far as I see it, in 2007 / 2008, banks' and other companies' stocks lose value.  This is due, ultimately, to investors realising risk on sub-prime mortgages was higher than what they were rated as, and so there were mass sell-offs of sell shares of those banks, insurance companies exposed to that risk.  As economic outlooks started to look bleak due to the sell-offs, other companies not even exposed to the rub-prime mortgage risk also started experiencing sell-offs.  Investors were walking away with losses, but still quite a lot of money, holding onto it in safe-havens investments like gold and the US dollar.  Unfortunately, then governments started their fiscal injections a.k.a. bailouts propping up the value of financial investment banks and insurance companies, which eroded the value of safe-haven investments due to inflation and relative currency devaluation.  Even gold was starting to look like a bubble.  Meanwhile, financial firms ended up using bailouts to merge and form conglomerates and, supposedly, pay their governments back.  Meanwhile, European banks and insurance companies likewise felt the pressure.  Entire countries who had been exposed to the risk of the failure of banks and insurance companies, likewise suddenly found themselves near bankruptcy.

My question is, what happened to the investors' money in the first sell-offs of bank and insurance company stocks?  Where did the money go?