Conclusion Steve Jobs described his approach to innovation as “trying to expose yourself to the best things that humans have done and then trying to bring those things into what you are doing. Picasso had a saying: good artists copy, great artists steal. And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas”. Language is the original great idea. Finance should steal it. References Akerlof, G A (1970), “The Market for “Lemons”: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 84, No. 3, August. Arthur, W B (2011), “The Second Economy”, McKinsey & Company 2011. Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (2011), “Global systemically important banks: assessment methodology and the additional loss absorbency requirement”, Bank for International Settlements, November, available at http://www.bis.org/publ/bcbs207.pdf. Berners-Lee, T (1989), “Information Management: A Proposal”, CERN, March. Berners-Lee, T and Cailliau, R (1990), “WorldWideWeb: Proposal for a HyperText Project”, CERN, November, available at http://www.w3.org/Proposal. CFTC / SEC (2011), “Joint Study on the Feasibility of Mandating Algorithmic Descriptions for Derivatives”, available at www.sec.gov/news/studies/2011/719b-study.pdf. Chandran, P M (2003), “Wal-Mart’s supply chain management practices”, ICFAI Center for Management Research case collection. Choi, H and Varian, H (2011), “Predicting the Present with Google Trends”, available at http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~hal/Papers/2011/ptp.pdf. Cohen, A (2002), “The Perfect Store: Inside eBay”, Piatkus. CPSS-IOSCO (2011), “Report on OTC derivatives data reporting and aggregation requirements: consultative report”, available at www.bis.org/publ/cpss96.pdf. Counterparty Risk Management Policy Group (2008), “Containing Systemic Risk: The Road to Reform”, August, available at http://www.crmpolicygroup.org/docs/CRMPG-III.pdf. Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010), available at www.sec.gov/about/laws/wallstreetreform-cpa.pdf.

Leszek Balcerowicz: The optimal timing and path for Poland’s entry into EMU Speech by Prof Leszek Balcerowicz, President of the National Bank of Poland, at the 11th European Banking Congress in Frankfurt, 23 November 2001. *  *  *  Thank you very much Mr Chairman, I welcome this opportunity to address such a distinguished audience. I would start with two basic assumptions. First, we are not discussing whether euro will go east or not because we are assuming Poland and other candidate countries will enter the European Union with the status of a country with derogation, so sooner or later they will be obliged to join the Monetary Union as well. Therefore, the issue under discussion is not “if” but “when” and “how” i.e. what are the optimal timing and the optimal path. Secondly, one should assume equal treatment of candidates and present EU member countries i.e. fulfilling the Maastrich Criteria, no less no more. There should be no additional criteria like, for example, a required level of financial deepening, as it would indicate an unequal treatment of candidate countries. Taking the second assumption of the entry into the EMU as granted, I would like to focus on the core issue, which is the question of optimal timing. My basic point is, that, firstly, early entry into the Monetary Union is possible and secondly, that it is preferable to the delayed one.