WHAT A BALLPOINT PEN TELLS US ABOUT CHINA’S MANUFACTURING WEAKNESS:

Premier Li Keqiang recently made a shocking revelation about the industrial capabilities of China on national television: despite the fact that the country is widely known as the “world’s factory” and produces everything from iPhones, aircraft carriers, high-speed railways to spacecraft, until now there is not a single manufacturer in China that is able to produce the tiny rotating ball fitted to the tip of a ball pen that disperses ink as you write.

Milton Friedman, call your office.