On Thursday, Germany refused any negotiations with Greece, and the European Central Bank (ECB) refused to accept Greek bonds as collateral (since there are no guarantees that the Greek government will carry out the “adjustment” plan). Although this does not amount to an immediate push to kick Greece out of the eurozone, it is certainly a threat in that direction.

In order to understand the motivations behind this recalcitrance, and the competing interests at work, Germany’s special relationship with the euro must be understood. The eurozone’s stated goal was to create a currency strong enough to build a unified European financial bloc that could compete with the US and China.

However, this was never the full truth. This “unified” bloc has always been composed of competing nation states, and the big, industrialized countries at the center have been keen on making the peripheral economies dependent on the core.