New York—Global stock exchanges were devastated this week by the worst collapse in history as a wave of panic selling followed the sun from Asia through Europe and back to Wall Street. The pandemonium was triggered by a Chinese government announcement that it would no longer finance the mounting budget and trade deficits of a “profligate United States” that “refuses to live within its means” and that “insists on scapegoating China for its own internal economic problems.” Nor would China continue to try to prop up “an increasingly worthless dollar.” As the Chinese began dumping U.S. assets on Wall Street, both stock and bond prices plummeted. The panic soon spread to other exchanges around the world as gold soared to more than $1,000 an ounce and fear of a global depression deepened. China’s actions have been widely interpreted as harsh retaliation for U.S. congressional passage of stiff protectionist tariffs on a wide range of manufactured goods. With the presidential election less than a month away, both houses of Congress up for electoral grabs, and the U.S. economy stuck in reverse, Republicans and Democrats alike are pushing additional legislation addressing everything from the growing trade in Chinese counterfeit goods, illegal drugs, and ballistic missiles to the international spillover from China’s mounting environmental pollution.