KANT WAS RIGHT!

TRANSLATED FROM PAUL JORION'S BLOG, 25/06/12

I feel it is important to focus on the possibility as to whether any measures proposed can be generalized. It was Martin Wolf who pointed out in a Financial Times (*) column that the Germans (in spite of being Kant’s compatriots) seem to have lost sight of the Kantian Categorical Imperative when they ask the other Eurozone nations to become net exporters like Germany. An error of logic has been committed here: nations cannot all be net exporters; if some are net exporters, it follows logically that others must be net importers and that nobody can blame them for this.