Justice Litle, Editorial Director, Taipan Publishing Group

And in Greece, the choices are seen as bankruptcy, i.e. instant fiscal death, or prolonged economic recession or even depression -- with crushing financial debt loads acting as a millstone for years or even decades to come.
The response of governments virtually everywhere has been to (1) protect the bankers, (2) shield creditors from any losses, and (3) pump up paper assets in the hope of getting things going again.
Why continue on this path if the results have been so ugly? Because the plan is working, at least for some. As the U.K. Guardian reports:

The U.K. economy is flat, the U.S. is weak and the Greek debt crisis, according to some commentators, is threatening another Lehman Brothers-style meltdown. But a new report shows the world's wealthiest people are getting more prosperous -- and more numerous -- by the day.

The globe's richest have now recouped the losses they suffered after the 2008 banking crisis. They are richer than ever, and there are more of them -- nearly 11 million -- than before the recession struck.

In the world of the well-heeled, the rich are referred to as "high net worth individuals" (HNWIs) and defined as people who have more than $1m (£620,000) of free cash.

According to the annual world wealth report by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini, the wealth of HNWIs around the world reached $42.7tn (£26.5tn) in 2010, rising nearly 10% in a year and surpassing the peak of $40.7tn reached in 2007, even as austerity budgets were implemented by many governments in the developed world.

Why Civil Unrest Is Sweeping the Globe