Carney’s courage ignores most of the world

January 23, 2026

Congratulations to Mark Carney for his stirring Davos speech. It’s difficult to disagree with anything he said but, as frequently occurs with me, it’s what isn’t said that causes me problems.

Carney talks repeatedly about ‘great powers’ (US and China presumably, Russia is hardly a great power at present) and ‘middle powers’, the rest of the wealthy, western, capitalist regime, I assume; the ones that have to greater and lesser degrees benefited from the structures and processes of the system of international relations established since world war two.

There is not a single mention by Carney of the third world, the developing world, the lower and lower-middle income countries, the supposedly post-colonial nations, the Global South, whatever you call the countries that don’t fall neatly into Carney’s dualist approach.

Carney’s bugle call would sound more sincere and more realistic if he also called on the ‘middle powers’ to work closely with ‘the rest’ to ensure that their difficulties, grievances, aspirations and proposed ways forward were integrated into whatever it is that Carney and his ‘middle power’ colleagues are considering.

More emphasis on global equity and justice wouldn’t come amiss. Forget the window sign, Mark, open the shop to more people.