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1. The turmoil in the Eurozone is due to the global crisis of financialisation that broke out in 2007. But it is also due to the biased nature of the European Monetary Union (EMU). Systematic pressure on labour has intensified the disparities of competitiveness among Eurozone members, splitting the Eurozone into core and periphery.

2. The periphery includes Spain, Portugal and Greece. It also includes Ireland, which is subject to the same pressures as the other three but has several peculiar economic features that call for separate analysis. The periphery has been unable to compete against the core, while being constrained by uniform monetary policy and rigid fiscal discipline. Thus it has registered current account deficits, mirroring the current account surpluses of the core, above all, Germany.