Neil Freiman

Perhaps if Warner Brothers executives and the board of directors see that all of their shareholders are defecting to Paramount and selling their shares, they could go to Paramount and say, okay, let's actually talk in friendly terms because we want to get the best deal for us.

So this is an incredibly juicy saga that we will keep reporting on over the next few weeks.

While the world's most famous factory is at the North Pole, the world's biggest factories are in China, which yesterday reported an astonishing $1 trillion trade surplus with the rest of the world.

something we've never seen before in the history of the global economy.

It shows China's exporting might in a wide range of goods.

From low-value toys and T-shirts to higher-value cars, drones, and solar panels, everything comes with a Made in China tag these days.

The trillion-dollar surplus also shows the limits to Washington's trade war with Beijing.

The Trump administration has slapped steep tariffs on China to slow the flow of goods to the U.S., and that's been working okay.

Chinese exports to the United States dropped by nearly a fifth through the first 11 months of the year.

But facing barriers in America, Chinese factories have found eager buyers elsewhere.

So far this year, Chinese exports to Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America have surged by 26%, 14%, and 7.1% respectively.

The EU Chamber of Commerce in China estimates that for every shipping container sent from Europe to China,

four containers head in the opposite direction.

Around the world, they estimate that China accounts for about 37% of everything that's exported in shipping containers.

Toby, we have never seen this level of industrial prowess by a single country before, not even the United States after World War II.

And it's the kind of thing that keeps world leaders awake at night.

And what's remarkable about China's factories is that in the 80s and 90s, when this economy was getting going and they became the world's producer, manufacturer, main exporter, is they were making those low value goods.

They were making toys, cheap consumer electronics, apparel, things like that.

And now they are still making those kind of goods, which a lot of people want to buy.

But at the same time, they've moved up the value food chain in remarkable ways.