Though to be sure, rule of law, the security of promises, must surely be LARGELY maintained?

By the way? Maybe the United States SHOULD accept a little more austerity. Or? Less violent over-consumption.

Say.

To the super-religious? How about a little less of the vices of ... Greed, and Gluttony? A little more spiritual/intellectual stuff? Quality of life? Love and Peace, and other non-material assets?

And maybe Greece gets back to the simple life? A few goats in the backyard; the sun; the sea breeze. And no BMW and 52' plazma TV?

Let's all get back to the simple basics.

Will be better for us, after all.

Only at the level where no central bank could step in and stop the meltdown. Credit Default Swaps of many hundreds of trillions of dollars are triggered by Gov't defaults.

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-02-16/markets/31065680_1_credit-default-greek-debt-cds
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2012/02/16/cashin-heres-the-real-risk-if-greek-defaults/

The problem isn't really the investors who lose money, it's all the banks that have issued credit default swaps on the investment. CDS are a type of insurance against sovereign default. It is a derivative that could create massive losses to that bank that issues it. We are talking about billions of dollars of losses for banks worldwide; including banks here in the US.( Banks that will need more bailouts if they have exposure)
Now, compound that with the possibility that Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy have Debt problems. Why wouldn't they just default , too? Spain and Italy are really "Too Big To Bail Out". If Greece is the " First Domino ", we could be talking about a massive global banking crisis.
Basically, letting the banks run around doing whatever they want has painted us all into a corner. Of course, they don't care; they will just ask for another bailout.