Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, European stocks have all just lost 7 to 10% in a day (Germany, France, Britain etc). You are not alone. Banks throughout Europe are suddenly finding themselves needing bail-outs, and being part-nationalised in response. This has a lot of similarities with how the great Depression started.
Although I nearly choked when the TV news announced that Iceland's banking system had "gone into meltdown".
If I find time, I'll soon make some comments about international currency exchange rate fluctuations. As a teaser, the AU$ has fallen about 33% against the yen in the last two months, and about 15% in the last week.
Since I have a large(ish) stash of yen, this is actually great for me, but changes that big, that fast, are not good for anyone.