Long before investors lost faith in the Chinese stock market, something seemed amiss at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, where the stevedores and longshoremen process about 40% of U.S. trade with China. Jock O’Connell, a trade adviser in California with 28 years’ experience studying the docks, wasn’t seeing the patterns he would expect from a rapidly growing Chinese consumer class. The number of containers coming from China was continuing to grow, but beginning in 2013, fewer were being sent in the other direction. Global stock markets had a rude awakening last week when investors suddenly woke up to a faltering Chinese stock market and unmistakable signs that the world’s second-largest economy was slowing. Close observers of U.S.-China trade patterns, however, had for several years seen the telltale signs many in the markets missed. “A couple of years ago, everybody was still agog about the growing, burgeoning […]