Half an hour after the market opening, the S&P 500 is down close to 5% and the Nasdaq down more than 5%.

The yield on the 10-year note has fallen to 2%, the lowest in history that I am aware of.

We’re seeing a combination of fears, from European debt to American and Chinese inflation to a double-dip recession.

Option volatility has exploded, with some people actually betting on the market dropping another 8%-10% by tomorrow afternoon, and who can blame them?

Paraphrasing Jeremiah Wright, western debt is coming home to roost. While I would much prefer a strong market to a weak one, if there is any good news in this, it’s that the loss of wealth and the increase in insecurity among everyone who has a retirement account will focus the minds of Americans (and to a lesser extent Europeans) on the folly of big government and Keynesian economics. In short, every time the market does this, it damages Barack Obama’s re-election chances, and not just because of the financial aspect of it all but because it shows how fatally flawed is everything Obama believes about economics.