Clearly, his ignorance suggested he had no intent to offend, yet the female professor was offended. There are two important issues here. First, if we spend all our time watching our words and using inoffensive language or hedging everything with caveats, we will be dull and will not be able to communicate because no one will listen.
In my remarks today, I will outline these decisions and explain the assessment of the current economic environment on which they were based. Following the recent euro area summit, I will also take this opportunity to discuss the future of our Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), pointing to priorities for the near term from an ECB perspective.