More importantly, it also once again provides the basis for an aggressive „negotiation“, potentially escalating to rancorous bargaining between Italy and Germany, as suddenly the ECB has made it clear that Italy‘s gain in a „hypothetical“ Euro zone exit would be a tremendous loss for Berlin and Merkel. We are confident that the question of „how much“ preventing such a loss would be worth to Merkel, will emerge in very short order. As for what Draghi‘s statement means for countries with a far smaller Target2 liability which may also consider exiting the monetary union, the answer is two words: „green light.“