« mop up after » strategy has « worked extraordinarily well » in the context of the stock market bubble of the late 90 ’ s. it could be reminded though that it worked well for the economy because of the very expansionary fiscal policy and the wealth effects on other asset markets ( bonds and real estate ) induced by the very aggressive monetary policy. the final result is that the so - called global imbalances are still with us and no one knows how their winding down will play out. this discussion highlights the importance i attach to financial stability as one of the core mandates of any central bank. in this context, i agree with blinder ’ s conclusion that important supervisory responsibilities should remain with central banks ( question 5 ). this conclusion stems directly from the strong complementarities that exist between the macroeconomic prudential surveillance framework and the microeconomic supervisory responsibilities. about the counterarguments based on the idea of a conflict of interest with monetary policy let me add just two comments. the first, that it is illusory to think that this possible conflict would disappear just by separating and giving the two functions of supervision and monetary policy to different institutions. the second, to underline the fact that the possibility of that conflict does not exist in the euro area in the case of national central banks that are responsible for supervision but do not decide, only by themselves, the single monetary policy and are not in full control of money creation. on transparency ( question 2 ), i agree that the trend is irreversible in the direction of wider disclosure by central banks of their procedures. transparency about goals and about methods can be beneficial to monetary policy because expectations are such an important channel of transmission. expectations about future policy and future inflation affect today ’ s decisions on wages and prices and those expectations depend on the economic agents ’ view on future monetary policy. so, i agree with the author in most of the points he makes about these issues. regarding the methods of published inflation forecasts and the treatment to be given to the future path of interest rates i think that taking into account the path indicated by the financial markets is an adequate solution. it is logically consistent, it is transparent and in the case of the eurosystem cannot lead to any sort of dynamic inconsistency as in our framework the staff forecast are just one element, albeit an important one, of the whole information set that we consider in our deliberations. contrary to the inflation - targeting regime,

: the covid - 19 pandemic, the war in ukraine, the ominous resurgence of long - forgotten geopolitical tensions. figuring out the inflationary implications of all this required another dose of intellectual heavy lifting, and ignazio did not shy away from it. clearly, ignazio did not get bored during these years. i hope that my mandate will be much more boring. in his 50 years of service, ignazio was also part of powerful historical processes. technology and globalization brought tangible improvements in living conditions around the world. the launch of the economic and monetary union and the creation of the euro heralded a new era for europe. in addition, the italian economy, despite its structural problems, proved its potential by emerging from the covid pandemic with an exceptionally strong recovery. these are success stories. they are also stories that none of us should take for granted. globalization is now in reverse ; emu is still incomplete ; and italy could easily fall back into its low - growth trap. i know how much ignazio cares about these issues, and i can assure him that banca d'italia will continue to work on them with the same passion and rigour that characterized his tenure as governor. over his career, between one crisis and the next, ignazio wrote extensively on a wide range of economic topics, from inflation expectations to education and human capital. he gave thorough, long public speeches on many of these topics. he also spearheaded the development of banca d'italia's econometric model. 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches yet ignazio left his mark on banca d'italia not only as an economist. his knowledge goes far beyond economics, and it includes as many poets, historians and philosophers as economists or statisticians. this combination often proved problematic for our colleagues : they knew that a briefing with the governor could include any combination of economic arguments, quotes from dante alighieri or søren kierkegaard, and citations from exoteric econometric papers from the 1970s onward. to make matters worse, ignazio is notoriously capable of digesting thick background documents without ever losing his concentration, or overlooking a footnote. he also has a sharp eye for spotting typos, and a true dislike for them. and he always doublechecks the double - checks – just in case. in short, he was not an easy client to please. but he was also welcoming and