Odd country, ours. Most of us are coming off a weekend in which we ate too much, shopped (on- and off-line), and celebrated the pause in campaign ads and the wide choice of football games on the flat-screen, high-definition television sets in 81 percent of American households (52 percent have multiple sets). Some 54 million of us travelled to be with families or recreate themselves, an increase of almost 5 percent from last year, which is a testimonial to the increased after-tax incomes of many families. Most gave thanks for our many blessings: freedom to say and write what we think, even ugly thoughts; the rule of law; and a growing economy that has at last begun to share its benefits more widely. Yes, those benefits are denied to too many—many families are suffering the effects of national disasters, floods in the East, wildfires in the West—but there are no riots in the streets, and America remains the destination of choice for the tired, poor masses yearning for jobs, not always to the delight of all our citizens.

And yet, and yet. . . . We are what George Will calls a “fury-saturated” nation, topped by a political class so dysfunctional it is setting a tone that is destroying the optimism of investors—witness a stumbling stock market in the face of rising profits. Democrats are threatening impeachment while Trump is pursuing an accelerating trade war and estrangement from traditional allies—not the sort of certainty and calm investors crave.