If last week’s debt-ceiling/deficit-reduction agreement staved off financial disaster — and the Washington politicians assured us that it would — then what are we supposed to call the economic earthquake that rocked Wall Street two days after the president signed the legislation?

State Sen. David Trahan announced this week that he was going to do the right thing, but he was not going to do it right away.

We like to applaud when people do the right thing, or, just as importantly, when they avoid doing the wrong thing.

The House and Senate reluctantly passed it. President Barack Obama reluctantly signed it. Tea party cheerleaders on talk radio and cable TV took a victory lap, but they didn’t really like it.

Someday, right-wing ideologues are going to choke on their hatred of Michelle Obama.

One of the most interesting policy ideas to come out of last year’s gubernatorial campaign was put forward by Paul LePage. It was the creation of an optional fifth year of high school, which would let a student earn a high school diploma and an associate degree at the same time.

The Legislature did the right thing this year when it made Maine one of the first states in the nation to outlaw the drug marketed as “bath salts.”

Gov. LePage had a chance to clear the air with the city of Portland and the struggling groundfishing industry Thursday, putting to rest allegations that the he had ordered a member of his administration to stop cooperating with the state’s biggest city and job creator for political reasons.

We don’t need to wait until Aug. 2 to find out what effect a failure to agree on raising the debt ceiling will have — it’s already happening.