Sometimes I really struggle to understand investors and markets. They get overrun by the spirits of irrational exuberance and sent to another planet.

Yesterday, the Dow soared 7% as investors embraced Geithern's plan to buy toxic bank debt. Global markets have followed.

While markets roared, the World Trade Organization has warned that we are facing a global collapse in world trade, the worst since World War Two. As the WTO says, the scary part is that it's a case of synchronized sinking - monthly exports and imports of major developed and developing economies have been falling in unison since September 2008.

The WTO writes: "Since the recession began to take hold in the fourth quarter of 2008 there has been little cause for optimism in the outlook for trade in 2009. The financial crisis has disrupted the normal functioning of the banking system and deprived firms and individuals of much-needed credit. Falling stock markets and housing prices have also administered negative shocks to wealth in the United States and elsewhere, making households unwilling to purchase durable goods such as automobiles while they attempt to rebuild their savings. Falling commodity prices, while a boon to consumers in importing countries, have also deprived oil-producing countries of export revenues."

Which suggests that the share market rally we have just seen is just a bounce. It won't last.