So I was too busy smashing potatoes (with shallots, butter and cream), falling asleep in front of the TV with the Giants-Broncos game on, and other such important matters Thursday to pay attention to the global market freakout occasioned by Dubai World’s announcement that it was going to stop paying its debt bills for six months. (Dubai World is the investment arm of the Dubai government; if you want to catch up on the story, read FT Alphaville).

As of this morning, things are already calming down a bit. Some Asian markets were down sharply overnight, and U.S. stock markets started the day 2% down. But European markets, which took the brunt of the hit yesterday, are up on the day. And while there’s certainly been a bit of a rush to safety in debt markets today (with investors buying the likes of U.S. Treasuries and selling emerging market debt), it is so far not indiscriminate and of pretty modest proportions.

Anyway, I was about to write a list of the different spins one could put on the Dubai troubles, then I saw on my RSS reader that Krugman had beaten me to it. His taxonomy sounds about right, so: