US President Donald Trump’s abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3 has emboldened him to proceed with the annexation of Greenland, a Danish-owned, self-governed territory, spelling the effective end of NATO and furthering Russia’s war aims in Ukraine, experts tell Al Jazeera.

“The move on Venezuela illustrates the Trump administration’s determination to dominate the Western Hemisphere – of which Greenland geographically is a part,” said Anna Wieslander, Northern Europe director for the Atlantic Council, a think tank.

“If the United States decides to attack another NATO country, then everything would stop – that includes NATO and therefore post-World War II security,” Frederiksen said.

“The pandering to Trump has been an element of our strategy over the last year, leaving observers hoping, but not entirely trusting, that another element of the strategy is preparing urgently for the final rupture with the United States,” Giles said.

Giles told Al Jazeera that Europe’s best option was to place a military deterrent on Greenland now, believing that putting allied troops in the Baltic States and Poland after 2017 deterred a Russian attack there.

  • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    they’ll for sure dump all of that debt

    That is a gain for the US, not a loss. No interest payments on the loans they’ve made, and no need to pay off the principal. Great!

    • PixxlMan@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      The debt doesn’t “go away”, the countries sell it on the market, causing the price of us bonds to drop. That causes the yield (what it costs the us to service the debt) to go up. Borrowing becomes more expensive. Repaying debt or borrowing more to pay interest becomes even more expensive for the us.

    • bufalo1973@piefed.social
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      2 days ago

      You are forgetting one thing: no more possibility of selling US debt. And currently the US debt is above 100% GDP.

      • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Yes. No new debt sold abroad. But also no need to raise debt to pay off existing debt.

        Also rasing more debt is a future problem. Does this administration care about the long term? No.

        • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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          1 day ago

          Dumping their bonds into the market isn’t cancelling their debt. Its making all that debt available for OTHERS to buy. Supply goes up, value goes down.

          In other words, if all of the US debt was out up for sale at the same time, is value of the US dollar would crater.

          • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Supply is the same unless debt is cancelled. A weaker dollar makes it easier to pay interest.

            "If you owe foreign banks $100, that’s your problem. If you owe foreign banks $100 trillion that’s the foreign bank’s problem.”

            • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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              1 day ago

              That’s not how markets work.

              But you’re clearly a troll just being intentionally obtuse for shits and giggles. It’s on me for not having realised it earlier.

              Have a good day.

                • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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                  1 day ago

                  I’ll trust the economists on this one. Honestly should have just done this from the beginning rather than trying to explain things.

                  When foreign countries start selling off U.S. debt, the immediate impact is on bond prices. A surge in selling increases the supply of bonds on the market. Just like any other asset, when supply rises dramatically without a corresponding rise in demand, prices fall. And when bond prices fall, yields—another way of saying interest rates—go up.

                  source - https://www.investingdaily.com/137830/what-it-means-when-the-world-dumps-u-s-debt/

                  • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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                    1 day ago

                    The number of bonds remains fixed (or reduces). Supply only increases if the US issues more bonds.

                    The quote is obvious bullshit. You can only have a surge in selling if there is an exactly equal surge in buying. One seller = one buyer.

                    Use your brain and don’t just quote from random websites.

        • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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          1 day ago

          Not cancelling, selling.

          A dollar bill is debt that the govt owes to you. A bond is similar, just a bit different.

          The US will still owe, just to different entities, but its figurative credit score will plummet at the same time it’s in a debt spiral.

          But let’s make it simpler. Most of the world’s USD is not in the US, but in cash reserves abroad. They hold it like gold.

          What happens if the big players sell? It’s already happening a bit, look at EURUSD and gold prices.

          • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Yes. This is Trumps goal. Make foreign goods super expensive for consumers and manufacturers. Exactly what a Tariff does.

            They are isolationists. They don’t want debt held overseas.

            • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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              1 day ago

              This would make all goods more expensive, as it would directly devalue the USD. It wouldn’t make people buy local, it would just make them buy less.

              It’s not what a tariff does, because that only applies to foreign imports.

                • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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                  21 hours ago

                  Not really. If the USD loses value, your neighbour will sell their goods to me for EUR because it will be worth more.

                  It will be like everyone in the US got a pay cut. It’s a demand side effect, not like a tariff, and it’s uniform, not like a tariff.

                  It’s inflation after all.