Contradiction? Who cares! Part 2437

Here's a surprise for everyone: self-contradictory speech from a politician! It's from a TV interview in Polish (I don't have a link so you'll have to take my word for it), and the culprit is one Professor Jan Winiecki, member of a Polish constitutional body called Monetary Policy Council (which is roughly the equivalent of the Federal Reserve Board). The interview was about Poland joining the Eurozone. At one point Winiecki was addressing a specific argument against common currency, namely that implementing it would deprive Poland of the possibility to increase the competitiveness of its exports by devaluing its national currency. His answer was: First, devaluing your currency does not increase the competitiveness of your exports (he quoted data to the effect that the dynamics of growth of Polish exports was actually slower during times when Polish currency was losing value against the Euro); Second, if Poland implements the Euro, then businesses in the exports sector that want to be more competitive will only be able to do this through improving their productivity, because improving competitiveness through devaluing currency will no longer be an option.

I'm not kidding. He said both those things in one breath.