The cards have been tipped, and it appears Italy's Prime Minister may have been right.

In the aftermath of Brexit, much of the investing public's attention has turned to Italian banks which are in desperate need of a bailout as a result of €360 billion in bad loans growing worse by the day (and not a bail-in, as European regulations mandate, as that would lead to an immediate bank run) to avoid a freeze and/or collapse of Italy's banking sector. This has pushed stock prices – and default risk – on Italian banks to record levels. So far Italy's bailout requests have mostly fallen on deaf ears, as Germany's political leaders have resisted Renzi's recurring pleas for a taxpayer funded rescue. However, as we have alleged, and as the Italian Prime Minister admitted last week, the core risk for Europe is not just the Italian banking sector but the biggest bank of all in Europe: Deutsche Bank (DB).

Recall may have been right, when speaking at a joint news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, Matteo Renzi said other European banks had much bigger problems than their Italian counterparts.

“If this non-performing loan problem is worth one, the question of derivatives at other banks, at big banks, is worth one hundred. This is the ratio: one to one hundred,” Renzi said.

He was, of course, referring to the tens of trillions of derivatives on Deutsche Bank's books.

Today, we got the most definitive confirmation yet that the noose is tightening not only around Italy, but Germany itself (where as we reported on Thursday, Europe's Bank Crisis Arrives In Germany as €29 Billion Bremen Landesbank On The Verge Of Failure) when none other than David Folkerts-Landau, the chief economist of Deutsche Bank, has called for a multi-billion dollar bailout for European banks.

Speaking to Germany's Welt am Sonntag, the economist said European institutions should get fresh capital for a recapitalization following a similar bailout in the US. What he didn't say is that the US bailout took place nearly a decade ago, in the meantime Europe's financial sector was supposed to be fixed courtesy of “prudent” fiscal and monetary policy. It wasn't.