This "meltdown" is so predictable.  Here's the latest from the Journal; well, the e-mail alerts that they send

The Federal Reserve and other central banks including the European Central Bank, Bank of England, Swiss National Bank and Bank of Japan announced coordinated action to ease the credit crunch by boosting short-term liquidity. The Fed expanded dollar swap arrangements with other central banks by $180 billion.

Here's good news from the British paper The Telegraph.

Albert Edwards, global strategist at Société Générale, said Washington's serial bail-outs are the inevitable result of the credit bubble of preceding years. "This was all baked in the cake long ago. What we have seen so far is just a dress rehearsal for the deep recession that is coming. America is going to be losing 500,000 jobs a months. That is when we will see interest rates go to zero. The deficit will be covered with printed money as it was in Japan. The endgame will be helicopters full of cash dropped by Ben Bernanke," he said.

Bernard Connolly, global strategist at Banque AIG, "We fear that a virtual nationalisation of the financial system will now be necessary," he said.

It's a good sign because this kind of talk is found near the end of a crisis; I am not saying we're at an end, but I like to see these kinds of negative pieces.

While it's good that we're getting this concerted action–the financial markets nearly ground to a halt, which would have pushed us into a deeper recession than the Great Depression–chances are that it's too late.  I simply don't see any way around paying for the lax credit policies that got us into this mess in the first place.