Those with the most to lose politically and financially have successfully fear-mongered these questions as if a Greek default would be the first in the history of mankind, or will trigger a "domino effect" of other nations defaulting.
When I think "domino effect", I tend to think of the 1960's Lie that if Vietnam fell to the Communists, all the nations in Southeast Asia would as well... It never occurred. So I admit I'm highly skeptical every time some politician, media presstitute (a polite way of saying whore) or financier uses that term.
The financial and politically powerful act as if very few nations ever default on their debts and when doing so, the results are catastrophic... Is that true? Well.. take a look for yourself... (the following 3 timeline charts were created by the IMF in 2008 and originally posted on the finance blog CalculatedRisk) and then answer for yourself how "exceptional" sovereign defaults really are, and why our world leaders are such Bleeping Liars?
** Double click on each pic to enlarge to a more readable size **
Sovereign Defaults 1820-1920
Sovereign Defaults 1921-1980
Sovereign Defaults 1981-2003
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