OK, OK ... maybe when you have been watching, reporting about and dissecting monetary policy for as many years as I have (yes, I AM every bit as old as I look!), EVERY central banker speech sounds like something you´ve heard before - the simple reason being that you HAVE ...

Of course, every banker´s, analyst´s, self-declared monetary policy expert´s snotty criticism along the lines of "how can they be so stupid?" or "Have they completely lost the plot?" definitely IS something you´ve heard before -- and far more often than you care to remember. The real eye-exasperatingly-towards-heaven-roller, however, isn´t that you´ve heard all the more or less obvious arguments against rate hikes and monetary tightening before. No, it´s that the vast majority of all those expert advice offering bankers, fund managers, high-tech-investment engineers, analysts and economists ... well, how can I put it without it sounding tooooooooooo snotty on my part? ..... Well, to put it biblically: If your slate is clean, you can throw stones, eh?

Because "How can they be so stupid?" or "Have they completely lost the plot?" - now if THAT isn´t the appropriate question to be put to vast chunks of the financial industry, then I don´t know it! Dot-Com bubble, LTCM, subprime .... dare I say more? I´m sure we all fondly (or not as it may be!) remember how often and how badly bankers get it so wrong and "lose the plot". AND - ARE - STILL - DOING - SO.

So why are bankers, analysts (generally working AT banks), ECB watchers (ditto) etc. all baying for lax monetary policy? Because they want to save the economy? .... Ah, what a romantic notion! Because they want to save their jobs. Because ONE major crisis we do have: a banking crisis. Banks and bankers didn´t do their homework, weren´t following the same rules of solid business practices as they are always recommending so easily to everybody else.

And now they hold the rest of the economy -- and especially the central banks -- ransom: If you don´t give us the money we need at the rate we want, you´ll get yourselves a nasty credit crunch an a recession. So hands up and deliver!

Ed Wray / AP European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet.

But now there is an adamant little Frenchman, Jean-Claude Trichet, and his merry band of monetary lawmakers and they simply say: Nope. No can do. And now THEY are the bad guys ... Funny old world.

THEY - unlike many an investment banker or financial engineer out there ins subprime and market land - are doing their job ...

As a European consumer I can only say: Carry on, JC! I rely on you ... And I daresay, I´m not the only one.

Because, believe it or not, a series of opinion polls by the EU Commission has produced a not altogether surprising result: What are EU citizens most concerned about right now? - INFLATION!

Ciao for now!

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