The fall and rise of Wall Street

"Look before you leap," said Irwin Kellner in MarketWatch. Monday's incredible stock-market surge was exciting, but it's way too early to declare that the worst is over. Stocks had plunged so deeply that they were due for a bounce. Before you rush back into the market, remember that the Dow is still 4,800 points below last year's high, and we're still in a recession.

Yes, but thanks to "unprecedented" and concerted actions by governments in Europe, America, and Asia, said The Economist, we may be catching a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel. By agreeing to "prop up failing banks, guarantee their loans and flood the world with cash by providing unlimited dollar funds through central banks," government leaders have shown that "the dithering has ended" even if the crisis hasn't.

"What a difference $3 trillion makes," said The Denver Post in an editorial. By making such a huge and "coordinated assault on the liquidity crisis," the world's key central banks calmed everyone by assuring that the credit needed to "lubricate the economy" will start flowing again. "The job ahead will be long and hard, but at least the world can go back to work."

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Resolving the credit crisis is one thing, said Aaron Task in Yahoo Finance. But the economy still appears to be in for a hard landing. "If and when the market gets over its newfound euphoria—if it hasn't already—and starts to focus on those realities, stocks are likely to suffer another downturn."