Into the breach stepped the new head of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, wielding what has somehow become known as a “big bazooka.” If a government had trouble borrowing the money it needed to keep going, he promised to print an unlimited amount of money and lend it (in a convoluted way) to the troubled government, in a process called Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT). Draghi hoped that this “bazooka” would never need to be used. If investors believed that the ECB would never allow a government to go bankrupt, then they would lend money more easily.

It worked. The euro crisis peaked in the autumn of 2012. It has still been simmering away, never actually solved, but Draghi’s move averted the immediate danger. Until last Friday. On that date the German Constitutional Court, based in Karlsruhe, issued a ruling that will make it very hard for Draghi to use his bazooka.

http://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11364.19.0.0/economy/euro/did-germany-just-destroy-the-euro