are you thinking about italy? md no, i ’ m thinking about ireland. ft a couple of other questions, one is the banking union because, in addition to all the questions that we ’ ve just discussed, these huge challenges for the eurozone and for the ecb, now you ’ re going to have to take on the extra responsibility of supervision of at the least the large banks in the eurozone. is the institution ready for this? are you ready for this? md we will be ready. after the council regulation will enter into force, it ’ d take about a year to set up organisation of the ssm. there have been many discussions on how fast we should move and how broad should be the scope. one has to remember that we are a passive actor. we are in the hands of our legislators. it ’ s clear that we want to move in a timely fashion, but it ’ s more important to move well. and we intend to take the time that ’ s needed for that. ft would one of the things about doing it right be that you need there to be some sort of european - wide bank resolution scheme in place before you take over the supervision, otherwise you ’ re in a situation where you ’ re nominally in charge of supervising all these banks. if one of them needs to be wound up, for whatever reason, you ’ re completely at the mercy of the local supervisor and the local arrangements. you don ’ t actually have the powers to do anything. md a european resolution authority is an important complement to the ssm, and it will likely be in place by the time the ssm takes up its responsibilities. but even in its absence, the single supervisor ’ s assessment of the possible non - viability of a bank would be such a strong statement that it would likely trigger the national government ’ s policy response. ft a personal question, it ’ s a human question, here you all this incredible pressure on you. if you had to think of a few people in the world, you ’ re definitely in the top five who ’ ve got most pressure from all the places, trying to hold this together. how do you cope with that, number one? and, number two is there anything that surprised you after being in this place for one year? md the way to cope with these pressures is to never forget that they are part of the set of responsibilities that one carries with this job, responsibilities to deliver price stability ; to take policy decisions

, i say that i don ’ t know. but i know that we have the duty to explain, and we are really working very, very hard on that front. hopefully the results will follow. and this holds true for the all euro area public opinion. ft you can see it in britain where it ’ s moving towards questioning membership of the european union. can we perhaps turn now to the question of what comes next – economic growth and the adjustment process? so, while it is true that current account deficits are shrinking and governments are doing, in many ways, courageous things, they ’ re passing reforms, there ’ s still the question of economic growth. what is your prognosis for the next 12 months? md last week we published our new staff projections, showing the beginning of a slow recovery in the second part of next year. we have a serious situation in front of us. at the same time, there are some encouraging signs. the spreads are tighter than they were four months ago. liquidity conditions are better, banks and corporates are funding themselves. bond issuance has restarted. and for the public sector, the distressed countries have basically completed all their sovereign funding plans. furthermore we think that our very accommodative monetary policy stance will find its way into the economy in the coming months. that ’ s why we ’ re saying that we may see a recovery in the second part of the year. also, at some point, one will see the benefits of fiscal consolidation and structural reforms. so far we ’ ve only seen the contractionary effect of the fiscal consolidation. we haven ’ t seen yet the positive effects of structural reforms because, obviously, they take effect with a certain lag. and third, we will be seeing a more buoyant world growth, which will help sustain exports of the euro area. ft are you bullish of america if they get through the fiscal cliff? md i ’ m confident they will find an agreement. ft and even beyond that with shale gas revolution, re - shoring, property market recovered. they ’ ve fixed their banks. md i think they are well poised for a positive outcome. it ’ s interesting though that until two months ago when people were asked about the major source of uncertainty and risk in the world, the answer was the euro crisis. and now it ’ s the fiscal cliff. ft just going back to the forecast you were talking about. those are actually a pretty dramatic downward revision. and