Future bleak for those on eurozone periphery

The eurozone is at an inflection point. The crisis may have abated compared with the daily whirlwind that convulsed both markets and governments up to the middle of last year.

A calmness of sorts was restored in July 2012 when ECB chief Mario Draghi pledged to do “whatever it takes to save the euro”.

Right now the only thing keeping the eurozone together is the ECB. But the resolve shown by Mr Draghi is not going down well in Berlin. A narrative has taken hold in the eurozone’s largest economy that divides the region into the virtuous and the sinners.