Could devaluation of China's yuan trigger the next financial crisis? | Larry Elliott

Anyone looking around for bad economic news in this 'silly season' is spoilt for choice

Every now and then, August belies its reputation as a sleepy month when nothing happens and throws up an event that shakes financial markets.

The Latin American debt crisis began in August 1982; oil prices soared after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990; the Asian debt crisis had its genesis in the same month in Thailand seven years later. Then there are the crises that simmer away in August and finally come to the boil in September: the buildup to Black Wednesday in 1990; the weeks leading up to the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.