Washington intrigue has sent stocks gyrating again. But the fundamentals remain strong. The period of extremely low stock-market volatility that I wrote about over the summer seems to be history. Back then stocks, as measured by the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, were behaving about as tranquilly as they have at any time since such records started being kept. At the lows in mid-July, there had been only 14 other days in the past two decades when stock-market volatility had been lower. It wasn't a very exciting time for fast-money speculators, perhaps, but it was a wonderful, low-risk environment for...