Just when you thought you were beginning to barely understand the financial cancer destroying America, it metastasized. Now it’s global.

You got other European countries mad at Ireland for guaranteeing deposits, fearing that money from their country would rush in. European stocks are at 20-year lows. Trading in Russia and Brazil was halted to stop steep stock selloffs. Australia drastically cut interest rates and shoveled $480 billion into its money markets, and Japan added $1 trillion to theirs. Iceland could be the first to fall, with the government stepping in Monday to assume sweeping powers. Bet you’re feeling smart now you didn’t fall for that 15.5% return on snow wolves scheme they were running.

That bailout plan we fretted so dearly about, “looks like a pebble tossed into a churning sea,” says the New York Times.

(Illustration: Getty)

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