The countdown to midterms is now in full force, and the ads, emailings, snailmailings, and robo-phone-call invasions into our personal lives will all combine to show us the worst of America’s political ugliness as it now descends on our country.

On Wednesday morning POLITICO’s Morning Money shared this quote from Bob Woodward’s new book, Fear, and opined on Trump’s intentions in the trade arena:

“I can stop this,” Cohn reportedly said. “I’ll just take the paper off his desk.”

We start September with a cash reserve in our US equity ETF portfolios. Some details of our thinking follow.

We wish our readers a Happy Post-Labor Day return to confront the 9-week run-up to the midterms. Other risk items include a possible government shutdown (not likely, in our view)…

Bob Bunting, a friend, meteorologist, and accomplished professor, has offered his insight on climate change via this guest commentary, It’s Hot and Getting Hotter – The Case for Adaptive Strategies for a Warming Planet. We appreciate his perspective and invite you to join the conversation.

Last week Venezuela devalued its currency, the bolivar, by 95%, cutting five zeros off the exchange rate. This measure was a desperate response to hyperinflation that reached an astonishing rate of 83,000% YoY in July, with prices doubling every 26 days.

As is the custom for Fed chairs, Chairman Powell provided the kickoff address to the Kansas City Fed’s annual Jackson Hole symposium, broadly attended by many of the world’s central bankers.

Mr. David Malpass, at the US Treasury, will meet with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen in late August. This is excellent news.

Dennis Gartman beat me to this on Thursday morning. I’m in complete agreement with Dennis’ assessment:

“Is there a vaccine now for Zika?” I asked Dr. Judy Monroe, president-CEO of the CDC Foundation. “Not yet, but we’re working on it,” she answered. For a YouTube of my interview with Judy when she visited Camp Kotok, see https://youtu.be/rge2tC74kSc.

August has brought welcome news for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and for creditors eager to see a resolution to the bankruptcy process that started more than two years ago with the passage of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA).

Let’s see. An American company with American employees catches fish. It ships the fish to China. China imposes a tariff or retaliatory tariff when the fish arrives from America.