Remember how we talked about putting a picture of a mushroom cloud on this page?  Well, now a 60-mile-high patch of flowers seems more appropriate.  An amazing day of trading has (so far) taken the Dow up about 680 points, or 8.04 percent.

Assuming everything doesn’t backfire at some point, governments all over the world deserve thanks for the development.  First, the U.S. government is starting to figure out how to implement its $700 billion plan.  It may have inspired a little bit of confidence in its citizens in the process, or at least made them less angry.

Another factor: European governments similarly decided to back their banks.  A Reuters article states, “Britain’s bank plan called for 37 billion pounds ($64 billion) of taxpayers’ cash to bail out three major banks in a move that would likely make the government their main shareholder.  Germany, France, Italy and other European governments also announced rescue packages totaling hundreds of billions of dollars that were designed to combat the banking crisis . . .”

We’re hardly out of the figurative woods, of course, but things are looking up.  And heck, even if the situation heads downhill again, at least we’ve had one day of good news and positive returns to serve as a mental break.