, in a stable, low - inflation world, has become more difficult to extract from the data. and so, in the same way as the experience see lucas ( 2006 ). see goodhart ( 2006 ). exemplified in the work of michael woodford. see benati ( 2007 ). see hildebrand ( 2006 ). of the weimar republic hyperinflation was the key “ founding memory ” for the bundesbank, or the dramatic experience of the revolutionary “ assignats ” for banque de france, 9 the experience of the great inflation can be regarded by today ’ s central banks as the cornerstone of their institutional architecture. indeed, as pointed out by the vice chairman of the federal reserve, 10 “ [ g ] reater support for independent central banks [ … ] was one of the results of the lessons of the great inflation of the 1970s. ” third, it is important to note that the link between money growth and inflation can be blurred by systematic fluctuations in the velocity of money. recent work carried out at the swiss national bank 11 has shown that, after controlling for systematic shifts in the equilibrium component of money velocity caused by fisherian movements in the opportunity cost of money, the long - run relationship between money growth and subsequent inflation is still in the data, and not only for the euro area, but also for the united states, where the stability of such a relationship has been most strongly questioned in the past. this finding suggests that monetary indicators should not be hastily discarded when their link with inflation appears to have weakened. rather, it suggests that monetary data should be subjected to a thorough and broad - based analysis, in order to filter out the noise and to fully understand movements in trend velocity which distort their low - frequency signal for long - term risks to price stability. the new swiss monetary policy concept : an ecb perspective from 1974 until the end of the century, the swiss national bank consistently pursued a strategy of targeting monetary aggregates, announcing targets first for m1, and then, from 1980, for the monetary base. ( only during a very brief period in 1978 - 1979 did the snb abandon monetary targeting in favour of an exchange rate target. ) owing to the increasing instability of the monetary base over the second half of the 1990s, however, the snb decided, at the end of 1999, to announce a new monetary policy framework. the new framework is based on three key elements : • an explicit definition of price stability “ [ … ] expressed in

once the projection process has run its course independently. at that point, we cross - check the outputs coming from models and formal frameworks, often from within a variety of non - nested alternatives. we adopt something similar to what my friend alan greenspan would call a bayesian approach to policy and alan blinder would describe as a rough approximation of optimal information processing : “ use a wide variety of models, and don ’ t ever trust any one of them too much. ” i view these differences as minor. our two central banks conduct similar exercises in robust policymaking within a shared framework of common principles : a clear definition of price stability, a mediumterm policy orientation, and an important role assigned to monetary indicators for the assessment of longer - term risks to price stability. conclusions permettez - moi en conclusion, cher jean - pierre, cher president, de souligner trois points. d ’ abord, il est particulierement emouvant pour l ’ ancien gouverneur de la banque de france que je suis, d ’ etre a zurich. nous avions celebre le 200ieme anniversaire de la banque de france, il y a 7 ans, en rendant un vibrant hommage a un citoyen suisse. la banque de france a ete creee par see “ under fire, on target ”, by ralph atkins and lionel barber, “ financial times ”, 18 may 2007, page 9. see assenmacher - wesche and gerlach ( 2006a, 2006b ). see blinder ( 1998, page 12 ). napoleon en 1800 sur une proposition du financier jean - frederic perregaux, qui en a ete ensuite le responsable. monsieur perregaux etait l ’ un de ces financiers suisses, a la fois tres imaginatifs, tres sages et tres prudents, dont la reputation est legendaire a travers les siecles. anschließend mochte ich hervorheben, wie vorbildlich die beziehungen sind, die alle zentralbanken der welt mit der schweiz sowie der schweizerischen nationalbank unterhalten. die offenheit der snb und ihre aktive beteil