In economics, this is often called the ‘Texas phenomenon’, since the difficulties of the oil-rich state of Texas in adjusting to the often large fluctuations in crude oil prices in the US dollar union (i.e. in the absence of a state-level Texan currency of its own) has been considered a classic example of an economy susceptible to asymmetric shocks.
In Europe, the adoption of the single rulebook will be a step in the same direction. When evaluating banks’ capital adequacy we also take account of their overall leverage. From this point of view, Italy’s banking system is extremely sound.