Wednesday night, with a vote of 74-25, the Senate approved nearly the same bailout package rejected by the House on Monday. The plan was sweetened with some politically savvy additions, including $150 billion in tax breaks for individuals and businesses and a temporary increase in the amount of bank deposits insured by the FDIC from $100,000 to $250,000. The House will vote on the bill Friday.

This entire credit crisis has brought up a lot of complex issues that the Average Joe and Josephine would never have thought about a year ago. Back then, most Americans had no idea what a subprime mortgage was: today it’s dinner conversation. And now the bailout package- the largest government intervention into the economy since the Great Depression, if passed- has introduced a whole new set of questions to be grappled with. Let’s look at the answers to the most important ones:

1) How long before credit starts flowing again? If this bailout passes, the reaction in the credit market will be nearly instantaneous. Banks will be able to get money quickly (assuming nothing else gums up the works..), and that means that loans to individuals and businesses should pick up within days.

2) How do we measure success? We’re going to know if the bailout has worked when we see or hear the positive consequences for individuals and companies. The credit crunch has affected everyone from corporate giants like Caterpillar and GE to small businesses to individuals. We’ll know the bailout has worked if companies start reporting increased availability of loans and ease fears of job cuts, and if individuals start getting approved for mortgages, car loans, and school loans again.

3) Should we watch for market reaction? No: ignore the stock market. The market is volatile these days and moves completely independent of the credit market. The stock market will react, of course- when the House rejected the bailout bill on Monday the Dow saw its largest point drop ever- but whether stocks shoot up or dive down, that has no bearing on the availability of credit.

The bailout will have direct consequences for every American. The real measure of its success is very personal: when your job’s more secure, your neighbor’s house can finally be sold, and your son can secure that car loan, that’s when we’ll know the government has done its job.