unconventional measures work as intended? before answering, it is important to remember that in the heat of the crisis, many national governments were paralyzed for political reasons or by fiscal constraints. therefore, central banks were forced to take on a large responsibility in fighting against the crisis in order to limit its adverse consequences. as such, qe programmes helped the us economy to recover quickly from the financial crisis. in the euro area, the ecb's unconventional monetary policy and its communication to the markets have been crucial in order to support the euro area economy and helped the euro overcome its most severe crisis since its introduction. taking on a greater role in the economic policy - making in this period has left central banks prone to criticism. however, when looking back in 20 years'time, i think history will acknowledge the responsibility they have taken in the period of crisis management. hopefully, central banks can allow themselves to relax a bit more in the future and let fiscal and structural policy do the heavy lifting. * * * slide 11 : are cryptocurrencies a mirror of the tulip mania but one thing we know for sure is that central banking and the idea of money will change a lot in the future due to new innovations. the question is how? looking at the recent developments in digital money and payments, this is perhaps the most relevant question for a central banker right now. side 7 af 9 in these days, crypto - currencies, and especially bitcoins, are on everybody's lips, even though their use is still relatively limited. [ in fact, the number of mobilepay payments in denmark exceeds the total global amount of payments conducted by bitcoins. ] [ i sometimes run into the question : will crypto - currencies be our future money? ] however, before making trivial comparisons, we must remember that crypto - currencies, like bitcoins, have no fundamental value, and therefore their value can increase or decrease quite fast. this is completely the opposite of how we usually think of money. one of the first things we learn about money is its function as a store of value. in other words, a fundamental characteristic of money is related to price stability. in contrast, bitcoins have been compared with the tulip bulbs in the netherlands in the seventeenth century. looking at this figure, it is not difficult to see why crypto - currencies cannot be mistaken for ordinary national currencies, which are under the control of

strongly than last year, but slightly less than in the rest of the eu. nevertheless, unemployment is expected to continue to increase for some time as it typically lags behind demand. no one can say for certain how long the increase will continue and how strong it will be. any calculations we make will have a considerable element of uncertainty. according to the latest estimate, unemployment will not peak until early 2011 at around 190, 000 persons. denmark can use economic policy to mitigate the mounting crisis, but we cannot avoid it – no matter what we do. we have already launched significant measures to stimulate private consumption and activity in the building and construction sector. fiscal policy is expansionary and has been so for several years. danmarks nationalbank's policy rates are historically low. we are running out of room to manoeuvre. we cannot force consumers to spend more. in the worst case, consumers will save up and then spend the money at a time when it would be more appropriate for them to tighten the reins. if we cut to the chase, it is a question of how much we can use the building and construction sector as a cyclical regulator to create jobs as compensation for falling employment in other sectors – exports, trade, services and the financial sector. we are saying : wait a moment and let us see how the measures already implemented work. after all, capacity in building and construction is limited. only recently, the sector was in full alert with overheating and shortage of craftsmen, while prices and wages were rising. if we overburden the building and construction sector again, history will repeat itself and that could ultimately exacerbate the crisis. finally, the contribution to an overall reduction in unemployment will be limited in any case. and i have not even mentioned the difficulties of ensuring rational planning of building or construction projects moved forward or subsidy schemes that stimulate initiation of projects. indeed, the crux of the matter here is job creation and not what can be done to mitigate the consequences for the unemployed. efforts should be directed at retaining and developing competencies, for example, and an extraordinary effort is required to create more places in education and training. * * * during the last six months of financial turbulence, the mortgage system has proved that it can ensure financing of real property. market confidence in the danish mortgage system has been upheld, against the backdrop of mounting difficulties in financing real property in many other countries. monetary policy has been relaxed all over the world. on 3