Indeed, confusing low nominal interest rates with monetary ease was the source of major problems in the 1930s, and it has perhaps been a problem in Japan in recent years as well. The real short-term interest rate, another candidate measure of policy stance, is also imperfect, because it mixes monetary and real influences, such as the rate of productivity growth.
And I can say in particular to every German citizen – together with Jürgen Stark, member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank and Axel Weber, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank – that in the past ten years the euro has been as good a store of value and as confidence-inspiring as the Deutsche Mark was previously.