SOME BIG NUMBERS

So far, over $600 billion of the Big Shitpile has been written off:

European banks have written down $226.8 billion out of a worldwide total of $635 billion since the U.S. subprime mortgage collapse last year set off the market crisis, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Here's a bigger number:

More than $25 trillion has been erased from global equities in 2008. European benchmark stock indexes tumbled 22 percent last week, the steepest slide in two decades. The Dow Jones Industrial Average notched its worst week since 1914. The MSCI World Index of stocks in 23 developed countries slid 20 percent, the most since records began in 1970.