Jean-Claude Trichet, the new president of the ECB, has a reputation as a polished performer. He lived up to it at his first press conference in Frankfurt: first praising his predecessor, apologising when consistency necessitated repetition and peppering his answers with: "If you permit me". He also cleverly sidestepped some linguistic point scoring.

Responding to a question asked in French, the new ECB president answered first in his mother tongue and then, as "all journalists do not have access