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To: Ilaine who wrote (158)	4/1/2001 9:20:04 PM
From: JF Quinnelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 443

The Germans didn't make the political decision to pay reparations. The victors made the political decision to force reparations. This isn't news. When you put a gun to someone's head and demand that he hand over his wallet, his cooperation isn't the result of market forces. And this isn't news. I suppose you could contrive a market explanation, but it would be sophistry. If someone put's his gun to a woman's head and demands sex, if she cooperates, is she a prostitute? Market forces are free market forces. Coercion isn't a market force. Maybe you have read too many libertarian essays and too few books on basic economics, because this sounds like libertarian political rhetoric and hasn't got anything to do with the German currency hyperinflating. Market forces operated on the German economy then, just like they operate on every economy now. And under the constraints of the Treaty the German currency was going to break. It's economic analysis, not sophistry, and a knowledge of market forces is what allowed Keynes to predict disaster as early as 1920 by using economic analysis on the terms of the Treaty.