Departing European Central Bank (ECB) president Jean-Claude Trichet was given a metaphorical kick out the door last week courtesy of a string of full-page adverts in leading European newspapers.

Edouard Carmignac, the boss of a boutique asset manager Carmignac Gestion, launched a very public and harsh attack on Trichet’s policies to date.

The chairman and founder of the French asset manager had a frank farewell letter to the outgoing ECB chief printed in the October 5^th edition of the Financial Times, in the form of a full-page advert.

Carmignac also took out adverts in Spanish newspaper El Pais and French papers Le Figaro and Le Monde.

And Carmignac certainly does not mince words, making his opinion about Trichet very clear.

“Farewell, you certainly won’t be missed!” the letter starts.

Carmignac, who sits at the helm of an investment house that bucked the trend and experienced growth at the peak of the crisis, goes on to accuse Trichet of deepening the impact of the 2008 crisis and “underestimating its scale”.

He attacks the increases in interest rates Trichet implemented saying that he “endangered the euro with ill-considered rate hikes and clearly inadequate support for the debt of weakened European countries”.

The French asset management leader called on Trichet to make amends during his last ECB Council meeting, held on 6^th October. He says the outgoing president should cut the bank’s interest rate to zero and “make a declaration of intent to purchase unlimited amounts of distressed countries’ sovereign debt”.

According to Carmignac, “whatever the monetarists may claim, the liquidity created through these interventions would not be inflationary. It would merely lessen the strength of the powerful deflationary forces generated by widespread deleveraging while also exerting a downward pressure on the Euro. But wouldn’t a weak Euro be preferable to no Euro at all?”

Although some may disagree, Carmignac felt the need to take a stand and make his position known. The adverts were taken out also suggest that he spent quite a bit of money on pointing fingers at Trichet and trying to compel him into taking action prior to stepping down from the ECB.

Carmignac is undoubtedly a rich man, as this burningpants blogger can attest, having visited Carmignac Gestion’s lavish offices in Place Vendome, Paris – a piazza that is home to luxury designers and boutiques.

And a look at what this media assault could have cost certainly underlines this.

A worldwide full-page advert in the FT costs $152,830, according to the newspaper’s 2011 rates, while a weekday full page advert in El Pais costs around €32,930, according to the paper’s 2009 rates. Furthermore, premium position ad pages on Le Monde range between €138,000 and €196,000.

Carmignac Gestion as a firm rode through the crisis well enough, only experiencing some performance pain earlier this year.

However, Carmignac himself felt he should not let Trichet scurry out the back door and thought it was worth flexing some financial muscle to make his opinions heard.

The ECB did not lower rates in its October 6^th meeting.