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Marketplace Morning Report

Economic power as a cudgel

Marketplace Morning Report

Marketplace

News, Business

4.5927 Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2026

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Usually a relatively quiet affair, this year’s World Economic Forum made headlines as President Donald Trump walked in with threatening language over wanting to acquire Greenland and left with what he said was a framework deal that would avoid a new trade war. We'll discuss the lasting impact. Plus, TikTok looks to be here to stay. And, from Marketplace's "This Is Uncomfortable," we hear about the importance of how people feel about their finances.

Transcript

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0:00.0

The dispute over Greenland might be smoothed over. Transatlantic relations are not.

0:08.7

From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Beneshore, in for David Brancaccio. The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland wraps up today.

0:16.6

What is usually a pretty quiet event started under a cloud. President Trump's increasingly

0:23.1

threatening language over wanting to acquire Greenland. The summit has ended with what the president

0:29.9

said is a framework deal that would avoid a new trade war with European allies. But for some

0:36.3

of those allies, Davos settled something else,

0:38.5

that they can no longer see the U.S. as a reliable partner and that they need to look elsewhere.

0:44.9

Marketplaces Nova Saffo has that.

0:47.3

One of the defining moments of the World Economic Forum this year was a speech by Canada's

0:51.7

Prime Minister, Mark Carney.

0:53.7

Great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs is leverage. Financial

1:00.0

infrastructure is coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.

1:05.0

Carney went on to say the world is in the midst of a rupture of old alliances, and middle

1:09.9

powers like Canada need to band together.

1:12.8

He received a standing ovation, which really doesn't happen. Davos is a very button-down place.

1:18.3

Cal Raustialla is director of the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations.

1:23.2

He says Carney's comments echoed frustrations over a year of erratic policies from the Trump administration.

1:29.5

I think Greenland was sort of the straw that broke the camel's back because it was more than just tariffs.

1:35.8

It was, he says, using economic power as a cudgel to demand territory from an ally.

1:41.3

Lillianar Rojas Suarez of the Center for Global Development says

1:45.0

American economic power is waning, as witnessed by the U.S. dollars, still the world's

1:49.5

reserved currency, but showing signs of weakness. Holdings of gold by central banks around the

...

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