difference is that Greeks are sleazy snake oil sales men and by now the rest of the world won't be scammed anymore, while the American marketing machine is brilliant and most likely makes the rest of the world trust in the credit of the United States for a very long time. Every party will come to an end eventually but at least investors in the US will only get fuxxed once every 200 years while the same occurs to investors in Greece or Russia every 20-50 years. Big picture!!!
Thanks to lousy politicians, the USA and Greece find themselves in similar messes i.e. in such huge debt that is un-repayable even if they wanted to.
When the rest of us come out of the dream state we are in we will ask for , nay demand that these 2 badly run countries man up and get their acts together. China and the other idiots should insist on adequate collateral for any future debt. Would $18 trillion be the approximate worth of Hawaii ? Would Germany settle for some Greek islands ? At least nobody else would be allowed on the sun beds - with large signs saying verboten to others.