Articolo tratto da The Magazine of international economic policy By Ludger Schuknecht
Why Germany’s exports and current account surpluses benefit other countries.
Whenever economists are barking up a tree, it is worth asking whether this profession so prone to herd mentality got the right tree. Over recent years it has become a favorite pursuit of part of the economic commentariat and certain institutions to chide Germany over its current account surplus. Europe’s largest economy, so the chorus goes, is pursuing “beggar-thy-neighbor” policies, thereby “destroying demand and taking away jobs elsewhere.”
Worse, being a notorious exporter, Germany apparently also forces its wrong approach onto others. Under German influence, the argument runs, the eurozone unfairly projects its own adjustment on the rest of the world, with the result being a “creeping onset of deflation, mass joblessness, thwarted internal rebalancing, and over-reliance on external demand.”
Germany’s example is seen as spreading a dark cloud of bad consequences: “There isn’t enough spending. Many policymakers still don’t get it.” And, again, appeals to fix things invariably turn to the European Central Bank: “Can Draghi get Germany to spend?”
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