Europe holds the trump card as the US faces a mountain of debt Mark Carney summed it up neatly. The "rules-based global order" was no more and it was time to wake up, Canada's prime minister told the annual gathering of the rich and richer in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

America's worldview has shifted. Rather than rely upon a network of staunch allies, as it has done for the past eight decades, it has reverted to an ethos more akin to the law of the jungle, where the strongest impose their will at their pleasure.

The US attacks on Venezuela, the kidnapping of its president and the unrelenting demands for Denmark to hand over Greenland have stunned those in diplomatic circles in recent weeks.

That's paralleled the vicious attacks on the US Federal Reserve and its leadership, which have rattled global investors.

"Call the system what it is: a period where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as a weapon of coercion," the Canadian leader told the World Economic Forum.

Carney knows, more than most, exactly how that system works.

As the former head of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, he's well aware of the geopolitical threat US President Donald Trump's dramatic policy shifts impose on global stability.

But Carney is also acutely aware of America's great vulnerability. That's why he is prepared to face up to Trump   ...