India, Jan. 23 -- Emmanuel Macron, the French president, was literally put on the mat, according to Donald Trump, the US president. In an anecdote that Trump told during the much-awaited speech at Davos (World Economic Forum), he twisted Macron's hand so hard that the latter acquiesced to a seemingly-impossible proposition. This is America's new tactic to get things done. Use the extreme threat of tariffs to get virtually anything such as more investment inflows, more exports, and more domestic jobs. The context was how Trump's ability to get the most-favoured-nation status from others was remarkably and dramatically different from what the past presidents did.

A pill, or medicine, that costs $10 in London, Trump was told, was priced at ...