The giants of American politics and money, not one of them apparently capable of balancing a checkbook, were going through their 412th explanation of who’s to blame for the collapse of the stock market, and who’s going to suffer the most, when the Baltimore Ravens showed up Monday night.

The economic geniuses were dealing with the day’s historic 778-point stock market drop. The Ravens were there merely to play a football game with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The stock market collapse leaves everybody wondering how we will make our mortgage payments, and finance a new car, and make the threads of our retirement money last us until we breathe our last.