But it also hints at the capricious Mr Hussein's power to cripple the Kurdish economy overnight, should he decide to flood it by releasing billions of Swiss dinars.
It may need some help from outsiders with marketing and product placement, but diversification probably makes more sense than just sticking with a capricious federal customer as the walls close in.
But I worry that over the long haul, it actually makes great institutions captive to the whims of capricious metrics, and distracts these organizations from the more durable and elevated standards to which they should aspire.