As its economy slows and its stock markets whip violently up and down, China faces a brutal choice. It can let the value of its currency, the yuan, fall and risk capital leaving the country. Or it can maintain the value of the yuan as it has been doing and watch its exports fall quarter after quarter. That was the key takeaway from China's July export data, which crossed the wires over the weekend. Exports were down 8.9% in July from the same time a year before. Analysts expected exports to fall only 0.3% so this was a huge miss. That 8.9% July decline compares to 2.1% increase in exports for June of this year. ... (full story)