The mercury is climbing, blossoms are bursting out — so does Wall Street finally get to celebrate a springtime of its own? For eight long months now, a ferocious credit crunch, unprecedented since the Great Depression, has trapped investors in a deep freeze. Not only stocks and real estate, but even some of the (reputedly) safest bonds and money market instruments fell victim to the Arctic blast.

Happily, I’m detecting hints, here and there, of a thaw. It’s taking a lot longer than I had hoped, but we will see the end of this new Ice Age. As a balmier climate sets in, we can look forward to healthy markets again — and a return to the steady, consistent profits we enjoyed from 2003 to around mid-2007.