Trichet’s balancing act

‘Banks will not forget that their job is to lend’

‘Let’s stick to the rules’

THE INTERVIEW TAKES place in Jean-Claude Trichet’s 35th-floor office in the Eurotower. While the view of a cold, grey, seemingly deserted Frankfurt is expansive, the office itself is remarkably austere. A George Soros volume figures prominently on a row of bookshelves evidently stacked for reading, not display. A bank of six telephones on a conference table connects him to the other key players in the unfolding drama of the past year or so.