Stock Market Amnesia: Does Anyone Recall Last Monday?

Global stocks rose Monday as the S&P 500 gained 2.2 percent to 1,204.49. In effect, that wiped out all of last week's 1.7 percent loss.

Remember last Monday, three days after S&P cut the sovereign debt rating on the U.S.? There was a global market panic as stock markets swooned, starting in Asia, then Europe, then on Wall Street. As part of damage control, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner scrapped plans to step down before the end of President Obama's term.

"No matter what some agency may say," President Obama said, "We've always been and always will be a triple-A country."

Last Monday, the S&P 500 dipped six percent along with the NASDAQ, while the Dow Jones Industrials fell five percent. The rout erased all gains for 2011, saw a flood of cash move into Treasury securities and created a sense of panic for the cable TV financial networks.

The market recovered Tuesday, slipped Wednesday but rose both Thursday and Friday.

By this Monday, it was business as usual, with markets reacting to news of Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Time Warner Cable's plans to buy Carlyle Group's Insight Communications and so on.

The panic has eased. The handholding by the Ben Bernankes, Timothy Geithners and Jean-Claude Trichets of the world seems to have done its work.

Until Tuesday.