Capital Economy, Business and Finance
Greenland is not for sale. In case anyone was in any doubt, its prime minister and Denmark’s have both confirmed this in the past two days, but that doesn’t make Donald Trump’s interest in buying it for the US inherently nonsensical.
In 1803 the US bought 530 million acres of North America from France for $15 million. In 1867 it bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million.
The following year the administration of Andrew Johnson commissioned a (favourable) report on Greenland as an investment and President Truman later offered Denmark $100 million for it.
Greenland is a treasure house of fresh water, expanding arable land, coastal fisheries and rare earths; an 800,000 square-mile hedge against climate change and a giant strategic buffer between the US and western Russia.
In 2019 the WaPo suggested an asking price of $1.7 trillion. Six years on, that would be a steal.
