He made three main points: Germany didn’t have the capacity to pay were it to regain anything like a normal standard of living; any attempt to force it to reduce its standard of living would produce revolution; and to the extent that Germany was able to increase its exports to pay reparations, this would be at the expense of the recipients’ exports. What was needed was cancelation of reparations and inter-Allied war debts as a whole, together with a big reconstruction loan to put the shattered European economies back on their feet.
一开始，经济学家凯恩斯就猛烈抨击强加给德国的赔款。他提出了三个论点：德国不具备偿还能力，除非它愿意牺牲正常的生活水平；任何强迫德国牺牲正常生活水平的举动都会造成革命；同时，由于德国可以通过增加出口来偿还赔款，因此让德国赔款将牺牲被偿付国的利益。协约国需要做的是将德国赔款和协约国内部债务一笔勾销，同时发放大手笔重建贷款，让满目疮痍的欧洲经济重新站稳脚跟。