Sovereign and bank risk are impairing the ability of banks in periphery countries to lend.

The latest evidence from euroland suggests that now they are trapped inside the single currency straitjacket, euro periphery countries are finally being forced to address their woeful lack of competitiveness.

But no one can claim that the periphery countries are not making enough effort to balance their budgets.

The eurozone's bailed-out periphery countries can't persuade their saviours of the validity of the first rule of holes — when in one, stop digging.

The troubled eurozone economy showed tentative signs of life last month as the painful rates of contraction in the periphery countries' manufacturing sectors started to ease.

In the process he introduces us to the people who work tirelessly - and sometimes on the periphery of society - to study and protect these snakes.

For all her educational advantages her assimilation into a white social structure 'will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society, never becoming a full participant', she concluded.

All this encouraged his exploration not only of working class life but also the emotional life of characters on the periphery of society.