Export growth is down sharply, turning negative vis à vis the eurozone s periphery.

However, there are substantial differences among these economies.

Nonetheless, the German model does hold some useful lessons for the eurozone s embattled peripheral countries today.

Either one involves risk sharing among eurozone members.

Second, all eurozone countries are effectively in the same boat.

Without external constraints, public and private expenditure grew precipitously in many countries on the eurozone periphery, while wages rose faster than productivity.

That is why interest rate spreads in the eurozone periphery are widening again now.

But now it is permeating the eurozone s core. And in the US, even if President Barack Obama and the Republicans in Congress agree on a budget plan that avoids the looming fiscal cliff, spending cuts and tax increases will invariably lead to some drag on growth in 2013 at least 1 of GDP.

The creditors imposition of strict austerity on the periphery is perpetuating the eurozone s division between center and periphery.

Given the exposure of some euro zone states such as Austria, this crisis will also affect the euro area directly.

This may seem extreme, but it simply recognizes the reality that much of the existing debt will not be paid back without new flows of official financing.

It has not resolved the fundamental economic imbalances between eurozone countries.

But several eurozone members did not keep their word, and the crisis engulfing their sovereign debt now endangers the survival of the eurozone as a whole.

The peripheral countries external deficits are falling rapidly, thus diminishing the need for foreign financing.

Instead, it is claimed, eurozone members should have been allowed to default.

Greece, a eurozone member, is now in just such an untenable situation.

Moreover, unemployment in the eurozone has skyrocketed to an average rate of roughly 12 , with more than 50 youth unemployment in the periphery countries implying a long term loss of talent and erosion of the tax base.

This pressure on the peripheral countries to deflate their already stagnant economies is turning into the eurozone s greatest challenge.

Meanwhile, not only is fiscal austerity pushing the eurozone periphery into economic free fall, but the loss of competitiveness there will persist as relief at the waning prospect of disorderly defaults strengthens the euro s value.

Formed originally as a free trade area, the eurozone comprises 17 of the countries.

Throughout the crisis, it has been widely assumed at least so far that the eurozone core would remain solid, and would continue to write the checks for the periphery s distressed governments and banks.

The Germans have been insisting on institutional change more centralized eurozone control over periphery banks and government budgets in exchange for expanded access to financing for the periphery.

But the euro system means that Germany s exchange rate cannot increase relative to other eurozone members.

After the advent of the euro, the eurozone s Mediterranean members enjoyed a lending boom while piggybacking on Germany s low interest rates.

Despite all this, markets remain unconvinced by the eurozone s shows of solidarity.

The eurozone crisis will not be resolved until this internal imbalance is reduced to a sustainable level, which requires not only fiscal adjustment in the troubled peripheral economies, but also balance of payments adjustments across the eurozone as a whole.

How could a eurozone supervisor be based outside the eurozone?

Not surprisingly, increased emigration to the stronger eurozone countries (such as Germany) has been accompanied by higher outflows of financial capital.

Political risks in the eurozone s periphery include the collapse of Italy s government and a fresh election as a result of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi s criminal conviction.

Scotching the Eurozone

The Eurozone s False Recovery

Poland s Eurozone Tests

A Survival Strategy for the Eurozone

Growing Up in the Eurozone

Judgment Day for the Eurozone

The Eurozone s Autumn Hangover

The Eurozone s Last Stand

So, leave the Eurozone.

As the ECB belongs to all euro countries, they would all bear the loss.

Ten eurozone countries had just been downgraded by the ratings agency Standard Poor s.

Eurobonds would not cure disparities in competitiveness eurozone countries would still need to undertake their own structural reforms.

Fears of default began to affect other countries, such as Portugal and Spain, among the 16 members of the eurozone.

In the wider European Union, countries like the United Kingdom or Hungary are as much afflicted by structural deficiencies as some peripheral eurozone countries are.

German officials now understand that, given extensive trade and financial links, a disorderly eurozone hurts not just the periphery but the core.

And now, thanks to the fiscal compact, even the eurozone s core will be forced into front loaded recessionary austerity.