Yea.

The Dow Jones closes up more than 900 points, according to early tallies , its biggest point gain in a single day ever.

Does this mean we aren’t all going to starve to death this winter? If so this is really going to put a crimp in Targets current Welcome to the Poor House! America! Wear our $38 dress while you stand in the bread line.” advertising campaign. The last time I went to the bank the teller made a point of telling me that they had no solvency problems and that I should worry about them at all. I would have felt better if she had looked me in the eye when she said it and wasn't holding the want ads  in one had and a rosery in the other.

Speaking of the fate of my money. We got another flash email at work today telling us that we most likely will not starve to death when we retire and that they are pretty much certain we’ll get our checks at the end of the month, Gawd Willing. Then I read the story in the paper

RALEIGH - North Carolina's public pension fund has taken its lumps because of the plunging stock market, but it remains fiscally solid and is doing better than most of its peers, State Treasurer Richard Moore said today.

The pension fund now stands at about $66 billion after falling about 12 percent for the one-year period that ended Sept. 30 -- including a $6 billion drop over the last three months.

Nevertheless, Moore said, "the pension fund of the state of North Carolina, and the cities and counties across North Carolina, is sound. And the retirees out there can rest assured that we've got plenty of money we can lay our hands on to make their retirement checks come every month just like they're supposed to.".

I don’t know, he’s sounding kind of faux folksy there. I don’t trust faux folksy. It just seems Sarah Palin-y and false. I don’t want my money in the hands of a Sarah Palin .

$6 Billion drop? No wonder I can’t order paperclips! And then there was this:

"As for active state workers, you're going to get your pay checks on time," Moore said. "While the growth of government may slow, there is no reason to believe that anybody is facing an imminent layoff."

Who said anything about layoffs? I would have preferred that he not use the L word if The L word wasn’t a possibility. No one said anything about layoffs. What is it they say about scoundrels and religion and folksy-ness? I feel doomed.

Speaking of “doomed”, we opened with great hemming and hawing and pearl clutching, a new psych hospital last summer and the whole saga of the place as been, well a saga and now? Now we’re mad at it. We have as of today four mental hospitals, Broughton hat we nailed last summer and cut off their funding for months, Cherry where we just cut off their funding, Dix that is still funded and... Not so fast there Central Reginal... . The stupid, it burns.