*  *  *  Let me begin by thanking Marek Belka, President of the National Bank of Poland, for inviting me to give this inaugural lecture in the National Bank’s bi-annual series during Ireland’s Presidency of the European Union.
It is not, to be sure, my first visit to Poland: I have come here for both business and leisure, and most recently had the most interesting pleasure of visiting Wroclaw during the Polish Presidency at the Informal Ecofin meeting hosted by Marek and by Jacek Rostowski.