First of all, I should like to congratulate the Estonian central bank on its 80th birthday. This also suggests that I should be modest, speaking as a representative of a central bank which is not even one year old. I am particularly delighted to be addressing the topic of politics and central banks, since this is one of the basic issues in central banking.
This behaviour has been compared to buying an insurance against a potentially harmful asset boom-bust cycle, where the insurance premium to be paid is some additional tightening leading to a lower level of inflation than would be required by the monetary policy strategy.24 Proponents of the leaning against the wind policy have typically been very careful to mention the strong informational requirements concerning the properties of the bubble.