Market meltdown signals China's economy is balancing out

Well, it was down, down, down across the board. The markets, oil, and the dollar all falling... 

As the week started off with a tumultuous "Black Monday." China was the epicenter of all the turmoil.

Market fears and freefall spread right around the globe after the key Shanghai index suffered its worst day in eight years. It's part of a worrying trend that has the index down 40 per cent since June.    

And now the Chinese economy -- a bright spot in the wake of the Global Financial crisis; and a major customer for Canadian commodities -- seems to be sputtering, or even crashing, down to earth.    

This all comes despite some major interventions by the Chinese state, including a surprise currency devaluation earlier this month. 

Nathan Vanderklippe is the Globe and Mail's Beijing correspondent.  We reached him in Taipei, Taiwan. 

To give us more insight into the volatility brought on by 'Black Monday' and the larger implications for China's and the world economy, we convened three people: 

• Anne Stevenson-Yang is co-founder of the independent Beijing research company J Capital Research, and a frequent commentator on the Chinese economy. She was in New York.
• Randall Bartlett is a senior economist with TD Economics and he joined us from Kingston, Ontario.
• Carmen Reinhart is a finance professor with the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and co-author of "This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly." She was in Boston. 
   

This segment was produced by The Current's Idella Sturino, Gord Westmacott and Naheed Mustafa.