The U.S. Treasury Department's recent accusation that Germany's export surplus is beggaring eurozone partners such as Greece and France is as wrong in terms of economics as it is terrible politics.
Germany makes high-quality products at competitive prices. That's why it has a current account surplus forecast to reach 7 percent of gross domestic product this year, a position that the U.S. and other developed nations can only envy. This success is not due to some neomercantilist policy of using export subsidies and unfair trade interventions, so in what way can it be described as unfair?
If the U.S., or France, or Italy could pull off such an export success story, they would. So they should: Just because a country has an export surplus doesn't mean it is stealing from its neighbors.