THE KASH TRANSACTIONS COMING TO WASHINGTON

Monkey see, monkey do. The change of government forthcoming in the US next month could exert an influence the world over, first by emulation.

- PRATIK KANJILAL

In France, the cabinet of Prime Minister Michel Barnier has fallen to the only successful no-confidence motion since the era of Charles de Gaulle, because Marine Le Pen's far-right party made common cause with the left. With France at a low ebb, it is feared the far right could get another shot at power soon.

Size matters, and the US is huge on several axes—military force, financial and diplomatic clout, academic leadership, the size of markets. President-elect Donald Trump proposes to wield tariffs like a broadsword to bring other countries to heel, to rightsize trade imbalances and right historical wrongs in areas like security. He has threatened tariffs against Canada and Mexico to push them to police the border with the US. He will brandish tariffs at China to press it to address the illicit trade in fentanyl, an opioid that has devastated lives in the US.

The economies of France and Germany are dispirited and the new political change in Paris will also have budgetary implications. It looks like a good time to lean on Europe and NATO, which had aggravated Trump during his first presidency, using tariffs to show who's boss.