Immanuel Wallerstein writes:

Everyone is discussing what Fortune magazine is calling the “Greek maelstrom” and everyone is pointing the finger at someone else.

The Greek government is accused of cheating and allowing Greeks to live beyond their means. The European Union is accused of having created an impossible structure for the euro. Goldman Sachs is accused of having enabled the Greek government to falsify its accounts when it sought to join the euro monetary system. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany calls Goldman Sachs’ actions in 2002 “scandalous” and Christine Lagarde, France’s finance minister, calls for greater regulation of credit-default swaps.

Niall Ferguson says “a Greek crisis is coming to America” and calls this “a fiscal crisis of the Western world.” Paul Krugman says calls it a “Euromess” because Europe should not have adopted a single currency before it was ready for political union. But now the euro can’t be allowed to break up since it would trigger a worldwide financial collapse.