The trade numbers say that America’s largest exports are industrial products such as refined petroleum and aircraft. In a real sense, though, our most important exports are intangible ones: political stability and the rule of law. Congress must act soon after it returns next month to preserve that monopoly — to avert the impending exhaustion of the federal government’s legal borrowing authority, lest the United States default on any of its obligations. Frequent predictions that the Communist government would act on its periodic ire with the United States by dumping our debt have never materialized. The United States has to keep earning this compliment every day.

Source: Washington Post August 31, 2017 00:33 UTC