The stock market is not the only thing that is up. Crude oil prices have jumped as well rising faster than the S&P for the past month.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) next month futures contract prices for crude oil on the NYMEX increased again last week. That marked the seventh consecutive week oil prices have gained, the first time that has happened since 2009. Overall, WTI pricing level has risen 11% since mid-December.

Now all of this means something pretty important. As we've known for a while now, the oil market has been oversold with values unusually low. This has largely resulted from concerns over demand related to the ongoing recovery/recession debate.

However, that debate has never been a particularly genuine one, certainly not for the last two quarters.

Yes, if we fell off a fiscal cliff or ran into a budgetary wall or failed to raise the debt ceiling and the living room chandelier fell on our heads there would be some substance in the Chicken Little approach to market analysis.

But we haven't, and, we won't.

With Congressional approval ratings just above those of Attila the Hun, they will slink in, kick some cans down the street, and slink out. That means the penumbra behind which the doomsayers have operated is no longer worth the smoke and mirrors it is based upon.

Here's why...

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