The markets hit a November high, with the key indexes up between 2 and 3 percent all day. Driven by news that the European Union may have a new plan to contain its debt crisis and record holiday retail sales over the weekend, investors came out of their tryptophan haze, saying “Buy!”

Black Friday is usually a good day for the markets. It’s a short trading day and there’s generally lots of excitement about the start of the holiday shopping season. Today, not so much.

It’s been a year of historic volatility in the financial markets. We explore the short- and long-term reasons behind the volatility.

If there was any schadenfreude among Germans about the financial plight of their profligate southern neighbors, today’s bond market embarrassment might be Germany’s wake-up call.

The revised third quarter GDP figures show 2 percent growth, down from the previously estimated 2.5 percent gain. Few economists were expecting that much of a revision and it sure looks like a disappointment — until you start picking through the numbers.

It’s time for the congressional debt-cutting “super” committee to hang up their budget-fighting capes. No official announcement yet, but it looks like stalemate.

It’s less than a week before the super committee must reach a deal to cut at least $1.2 trillion from the U.S. deficit. Both sides say they know the clock is ticking, but they’re not getting closer to agreement.

A big afternoon drop in the markets on concerns that the congressional super committee is deadlocked and the yield on Spanish bonds neared a disturbingly high 7 percent.

The teachable moment out of the European financial mess today involves creeping contagion in unlikely places.