Chaos

The world is in financial chaos. The TED spread has hit 4.14%, an all time record. Suck it, Black Monday.

If this weren't so horrific, I'd say it's fun. I've never had so much fun following economics, which is incongruous with the general state of fear that is permeating the country.

The world is full of good news.

From Calculated Risk, note that we're coming back from the brink of madness on a huge number of indicators. Energy prices are plummeting. Heck, the dollar is even stronger.

Note that the government was all set to bail out Wachovia, a bank drunk on the wine of Subprime, by backing their debt in a sale to Citibank. But Wells Fargo stepped in to actually make a competitive bid without the guarantee, and Citibank has acquiesced. So there was real value in Wachoiva.

Will it get worse before it gets better? Maybe. It feels like this is panic time, and this is very much unlike a stock market crash, and unwinding the tech bubble in 2001 wasn't exactly smooth sailing. This is clearly a lot worse.