Ana, And then - who else is expected, and prepared, to bail out states on the brink of default?? A state's default reflects in almost all cases (bar those such as in the case a natural disaster or war or such) bad household discipline with no balance between spending and income. Every small business owner or private household knows this basic financial principle. You can rest assured, the mother of all defaults (the one of the US of A) is going to come in a generation or so, anyway, unless they are going to "inflation it away" by means of another war or other kind of global crisis. And then the IMF or World Bank won't be able to help out...