With not much to decide at Thursday’s meeting - its strategy remained unchanged in spite of talk of further “quantitative easing” in the US and UK - the European Central Bank’s governing council embarked on what Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, described as a “literary exercise” to trim back the introductory statement he reads at each monthly press conference. I am not sure the results were entirely successful.

Vítor Constâncio, the vice-president, sitting next to Mr Trichet, looked pained when I described some of the new language as rather tortured. But I stand by my case. Read more