America may weaponize global economic integration—but it still needs the rest of us

While both Macron and Carney called out the US, the latter more forcefully, the French leader offered a Eurocentric view. Carney’s speech, in contrast, was far wider in its scope and appeal. Trump’s view, in keeping with his record on ‘America First’ myopia, was not just US-scopic and full of swagger, but rife with imperialist overtones to boot.

Almost palpable sighs of relief arose soon after, though. Europe, especially, may be tempted to breathe easy after he called off his threat of a Greenland grab by force as well as that of punitive tariffs for those openly resisting his Arctic plan. He attributed his step-back to a “framework of a future deal" within the Nato alliance over the island.

Critics of Trump might point to this about-turn as yet another example of Trump living up to his ‘TACO’ reputation in some market circles: ‘Trump always chickens out.’

But there is no space for complacency. The US leader has put the global economic order at risk of falling apart. The sooner the world unites against it, the better.

As Carney put it, speaking at Davos a day before Trump, what the world is experiencing is a “rupture, not a transition… the end of a pleasant fiction and beginning of a harsh reality where geopolitics [among great powers is not subject to any constraints]."

As Carney pointed out, other countries are not powerless. They have the capacity to build a “new order that embodies our values, such as respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and the territorial integrity of various states."

Though he spoke in the context of what he called “middle powers like Canada," it was amply clear from his message that it was aimed at the world at large.

The US might be using economic integration as a weapon and financial infrastructure for coercion, as Carney noted, but the reality is that the US is dependent on the rest of the world as well.

Much of its ability to hold the rest of the world to ransom springs from the ‘exorbitant privilege’ that arises from the US dollar’s global status as a reserve currency. This enables it to live way beyond its means, with its profligacy financed by the printing of dollar bills and issuance of low-rate IOUs in the form of Treasury bills for others to pile up.

As of November 2025, foreign investors held about a third of all US Treasuries by value and almost 40% of this was by just five countries: Japan, the UK, China, Canada and Belgium. A drop in their appetite for US debt could turn the bond market ‘yippy,’ send US interest rates up and slow the American economy.

Moreover, as China and India emerge as economic powerhouses in their own right, US hegemony over the global economy is sure to weaken. According to the International Monetary Fund’s 2026 projections, the EU, China and India account for 42.3% of world GDP, up from 36.3% in 2000, with the US share down to just 14.5% from 20.4% in terms of purchasing power parity.

The rest of the world is not as powerless as Trump seems to assume. We only need to heed Carney’s wake-up call. And stand together.