The recent wave of volatility reflects policy missteps, market overheating and a shifting global landscape. Short-term risks remain, and vigilance is required for both economic indicators and policy. We’re living through a time in which there is no substitute for calm and prudent analysis.

The implications of recent stock market volatility in the United States, combined with slowing job growth and rising unemployment, are causing a panic and triggering discussions about an inflection point. The signs of a recession are rattling the market’s shared hope for a soft landing.

Only through steadfast multilateral policy coordination and flexible, effective measures can global financial markets weather the storm safely and achieve stability and development.

Financial markets today are thriving. The Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq composite index have all reached record highs lately, with emerging-economy financial markets also performing strongly. But digital currencies could further destabilize an already-tenuous leverage- and liquidity-based system.

The bubbles in both finance and property are growing too big. The ordinary real economy is increasingly unable to bear the over-expansion of finance and property of the past 10 years. And NASDAQ is the most precarious bubble of all.

The performance of Chinese and U.S. shares are rarely compared side-by-side. Together though, they tell the story of the gains that have been available to investors over the past decades, in what are now regarded as the two largest economies—and most capitalised stock markets—in the world.

Chinese President Xi Jinping defended his government’s economic stewardship and said that China’s slowing growth and market fluctuations won’t deter needed reforms.

The lens of government intervention in China has led foreign observers to misinterpret some of the most important developments this year in the foreign exchange market and the stock market.

Moderating growth rates in the range of 5-7% per annum reflect the higher per capita income level and the changing growth paradigm in China. A modest slowdown is a necessary and healthy adjustment for China to transition to a new trajectory of more efficient and sustainable growth. But instead of greeting such a positive "new normal" with enthusiasm, the naysayers have reacted with dismay as though they would rather prefer the old growth model.

Tectonic shifts are occurring in the economy, financial markets, geopolitical strategy, and social policy. The ultimate test may well lie in managing the exceedingly complex interplay among these developments. Is China’s leadership up to the task, or has it bitten off too much at once?