Dismissive Trichet shows true colours

The departure of Patrick Honohan from the Central Bank caps a week where the Irish public saw the true reality of central bank independence.

First, Jean-Claude Trichet. As the head of the ECB at a crucial juncture for the Irish economy, he was always someone who was going to have to be involved in the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry. A problem he faced, and it is an unpalatable but real one, is that the ECB is (nominally) independent.

It does not report to anyone, really. Maybe Berlin. That is the nature of a central bank that is designed to not be simply a soft touch for a broke government.