So if you're like most Americans, and are watching with semi-comprehension and growing horror the financial crisis that built up over the weekend, the New York Times is offering a live-blog today that assesses the damage as it unfolds. At this particular moment, stocks have plunged, people on Wall Street are nervous, but the sky's not falling just yet.

Meanwhile, you can imagine that John McCain's campaign isn't terribly happy with the self-parodying investment analyst Donald Luskin, who penned a happy-talk op-ed for the Washington Post yesterday trumpteting the health of the economy while advertising himself as an advisor to McCain. Luskin does note unhappily that McCain himself doesn't seem to get it that concerns about the economy are fraudulent, but blames that on Barack Obama. Seriously.