Dirk Ehnts — Monti to Obama: “For Germans, economics is still part of moral philosophy”

Mike Norman Economics 2015-08-18

The New Yorker had an article on Matteo Renzi – the Demolition Man, they called him – in late June. Towards the end, there is an enlightening passage about the intellectual problems of the German political elite:
Monti told me that, when he was Prime Minister and visited Barack Obama at the White House, Obama admitted to being at a loss to know “how to engage Merkel on matters of economic policy.” Obama asked his advice, and Monti replied, “For Germans, economics is still part of moral philosophy, so don’t even try to suggest that the way to help Europe grow is through public spending. In Germany, growth is the reward for virtuous economics, and the word for ‘guilt’ and ‘debt’ is the same.”
At least the Germans admit this. Other economists are moral philosophers, too, but they purport to be value-free scientists. Their assumptions, stated and hidden, belie that. econoblog 101 Monti to Obama: “For Germans, economics is still part of moral philosophy” Dirk Ehnts | Lecturer at Bard College Berlin