And finally...
And finally, here’s our recap of the week in Davos, by my colleagues John Collingridge and Heather Stewart:
In the bars, hotels and windowless conference halls of the World Economic Forum in Davos, two themes dominated the conversation: America’s ascendancy and Europe’s decline.
If the scale of the continent’s problems was unclear before politicians and chief executives descended on the Swiss ski resort, there was no ambiguity by the time Donald Trump had finished speaking.
The 47th president of the US beamed via video into a packed conference hall to rail against stifling European regulation, car exports flooding to the US and fines and penalties on Apple, Google and Facebook.
No longer will members of Nato be able to freeload off America’s security guarantee, he added, demanding they increase defence spending to 5% of GDP – a barb aimed squarely at Europe.
“From the standpoint of America, the EU treats us very, very unfairly, very badly,” he said.
“We have some very big complaints with the EU.”
More here:
And that’s all for this week. Uf Widerluege!
Donald Trump’s speech last night was the standout moment from this year’s World Economic Forum annual meeting.
As he loomed over the Davos stage, not unlike the Eye of Sauron, Trump committed more news than a single liveblog could handle – calling for lower oil prices and interest rate cuts, and higher military spending by Nato members.
He threatened tariffs on US imports, claimed Europe and China treated the US badly, tooted his own trumpet about his actions this week,
The fact so many Davos delegates turned up to watch a video call with Trump shows the president’s pulling power, (and perhaps even nervousness that bunking off might somehow attract his ire?).
But the market reaction to the speech is interesting…
Matthew Ryan, Head of Market Strategy at global financial services firm Ebury, explains:
“The lack of clarity provided by Trump with regards to his plans for trade has weighed on the US dollar so far this week, with the greenback trading lower on all G10 currencies.
“So far, Trump has only gone so far as to moot the idea of placing 25% duties on Canada and Mexico and tariffs of only 10% on all Chinese imports - the latter would be considerably lower than the 60% he proposed during his campaign trail.
