The three big events of the day? In the view of your humble correspondent:

1) That the sky still hasn’t fallen. When the market closed just a few minutes ago, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had risen nearly 500 points, or just shy of five percent.

2) That it has become impossible–simply impossible–to dismiss opponents of the bailout as mere hayseeds and (what to a lot of people amounts to the same thing) House Republicans. See, to name just one example, this column by Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron.

3) That as a matter of practical politics, overwhelming support has emerged for what is widely being called “Plan B,” namely, the use of the FDIC to backstop commercial banks, on which (as quite distinct from investment banks) our system of payments and credits actually depends. The broad outlines of such a plan–increasing the deposit insurance level while giving the FDIC additional discretion to help wobbly banks–are in very little dispute.

If Hank Paulson, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi were serious about doing something useful in a hurry, they could have “Plan B” on the president’s desk by tomorrow evening.