Lipstick On A Pig

Businessweek has these interesting facts.

States That Can't Pay for Themselves
http://finance.yahoo.com/loans/article/105909/States-That-Can%27t-Pay-for-Themselves

California
Budget gap (as a % of the total budget): 22%
Gap: $22.2 billion

New York
Budget gap (as a % of the total budget): 9.8%
Gap: $5.5 billion

Florida
Budget gap (as a % of the total budget): 19.9%
Gap: $5.1 billion

New Jersey
Budget gap (as a % of the total budget): 7.7%
Gap: $2.5 billion
NJ Governor just announced major spending freezes

Arizona
Budget gap (as a % of the total budget): 19.9%
Gap: $2 billion

Nevada
Budget gap (as a % of the total budget): 16%
Gap: $1.2 billion

California by itself is the 8th largest economy in the world matching roughly the entire GDP output of France.

From the CIA FactBook

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html

Greece is the 34Th largest economy
Italy is 11
Spain is 13
Portugal is 50
Ireland is 56

Additionally...

43 states in financial trouble
http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/10/news/economy/state_budgets/index.htm

By itself Greece shouldn't be a problem, but it is because banks have become interconnected. There is a high correlation with respect to one country defaulting when there shouldn't be. French and German Banks own a huge part of Greece's $300B in debt which in turn makes those banks as well as countries unstable. This is how banks posture for bailouts. You can be certain that research reports from German/French banks will harp on the interconnectedness's of Greece's sovereign debt problems. These banks are also huge in the sovereign CDS market for their neighboring countries.