I expected to spend the week worrying about the collapse of the world economy as Congress played partisan chicken with the debt limit, bringing our country to the brink of being unable to pay our bills.

Instead, it was a good week for the economy. The stock market staged a nice rally, hiring continued to grow, recession fears receded.

All because enough grown-ups in Washington acted like it, reluctantly but responsibly accepting a deal forged by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that gave both sides enough to claim some measure of victory while limiting the damage.

Credit to Hawaii’s four Democratic members, Sens. Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono and Reps. Ed Case and Jill Tokuda, for swallowing partisan misgivings and voting for the compromise.

In a divided government, nobody gets everything their own way. You take the best deal you can get and try to win more elections so you can get better deals in the future.

A blown-up economy caused by malicious political mayhem could have been a fatal failure of American democracy, once the most reliably stabilizing force on the planet.

Our democracy remains strained, and Congress is already back to its clownish ways, but there’s always hope as long as adults take the controls when we face the most difficult stress tests.

Back home, it’s plain old greed more than ideology straining the political equilibrium as Honolulu City Council members seem bent on blowing up their credibility for the most ignoble of causes: 64% pay raises for themselves that are shamelessly preposterous and have long-suffering constituents up in arms.

A majority led by Council Chair Tommy Waters and Vice Chair Esther Kia‘aina, and including members Calvin Say, Val Okimoto, Matt Weyer and Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, appears determined to take the money and run without the accountability of public hearings or a vote.

Unless they change course before July 1, the proposal of the Council-controlled Salary Commission to raise Council pay to $113,000 from $68,904, with Waters getting $10,000 more, automatically takes effect.

What’s worse is that Waters and Kia‘aina, who claim the raises are warranted because Council work is full time, appear to be backing away from promised legislation to actually make Council work full time by barring outside employment.

This would leave taxpayers on the hook for full-time pay while Council members remain free to hold second and third jobs.

Council members base much of their claim to full-time status on the neighborhood board meetings and other community events they attend at night, often mixing Council duties with campaigning for reelection.

The thing is, nobody else at those meetings is getting paid. Engaged citizens are there off-hours and on their own time, sometimes at several events a week, because they care deeply for their communities. Council members are the only ones demanding to be paid for being there. They’re the only ones who have staff to send when they don’t feel like attending themselves — or when it conflicts with an outside job.

Remember that the next time you see one of them preening like a hero for showing up at your neighborhood board meeting.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.