As Martin Wolf of the FT pointed out this morning on Today, this German fear of becoming banker to the entire eurozone even infects the capacity of the European Central Bank to buy the debt of Italy and Spain in sufficient quantity to prevent their sovereign borrowing costs from ballooning to potentially lethal levels.

BBC: Can Merkel and Sarkozy turn the tide of markets?

"He can return to Israel today if he wants to, " said Rainer Wolf, a spokesman for Cologne's prosecutors' office.

BBC: Germany frees Israeli 'agent' suspected in Hamas murder

The fashion today is to shore up most theories of human behaviour with a bit of neuroscience, and Ms Wolf obliges.

ECONOMIST: Tunnel of love