Questions I would rather not see as headlines ...

... but, here they are at Slate.com:
Can California Declare Bankruptcy? What about Greece?
Isn't that exciting!  How the heck did we reach such a juncture?

California passed a gas tax last week to help make up for its nearly $20 billion budget gap, the latest in a series of measures to right the state's teetering economy. The country of Greece is in even worse shape, with accumulated debt higher than 110 percent of GDP, set to reach 125 percent this year. Can a state declare bankruptcy? Can a country?

You are thinking, hey, declare bankruptcy and start all over!  Gold Rush, Part II.  Of course, California cannot declare bankruptcy. 

Greece is in a slightly different situation. There's no international bankruptcy court for countries that can't pay their debts. Instead, other EU countries that depend on Greece's solvency, such as Germany or France, would have to agree to bail it out. (When the economy of one member of the Eurozone sinks, it drags the euro down across the continent.)

Anne Applebaum writes that Germany is sick and tired of bailing out ailing Euro economies.  Further more, the deficit countries seem to be partying away, while Germany is working hard to save:

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany's deeply serious paper of record, has pointed out that while the Greeks are out protesting the raising of the pension age from 61 to 63, Germany recently raised its pension age from 65 to 67: "Does that mean that the Germans should in future extend the working age from 67 to 69, so that Greeks can enjoy their retirement?'

But, there is more to this Greek Tragedy than that meets the eye, according to Applebaum:

Germany is now run by a generation with no personal memories of the war. Germany's historical debate is now focused on the fate of Germans who suffered from wartime bombing and postwar deportation, not with the fate of Germany's victims—in Greece or anywhere else. Sooner or later, the Germans will collectively decide that enough sacrifices have been made and that the debt to Europe has been paid. Thanks to the ungrateful Greeks with their island villas and large pensions, that day may arrive more quickly that we thought it would.

Oh well ... dance away, Zorba :)