We've basically had a game of chicken between low-debt countries in the North of the Euro zone and high-debt countries in the South. That stand-off ended with Draghi saying in 2012 that the ECB would do "whatever it takes" to defend the Euro. That speech tied the Euro to debt. That was the mistake.

Thank you. Did Draghi make this decision in coordination with any other EU institution (I am thinking in particular the European Council) or the governments of the low-debt MMS?

Given the magnitude of what that speech implied, it likely had some backing from Germany's Merkel (we don't know for sure). That speech overruled the Wolfgang Schäuble camp in Germany, which insisted on structural reforms in Italy and Spain in return for financial help. Merkel gave up basically...

Thank you. Schäuble was criticised badly at the time but ever since his death, praise and appeciation from quarters I would have never imagined emerged for him and his work.