What the package has done is help to create a fire-break to avoid the spread of contagion throughout the eurozone.

The Chinese rating agency Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. has downgraded last Thursday the credit rating of the United States to A +, on negative watch for possible downgrade. The agency had already downgraded the rating of France and Great-Britain...

Private equity funds invest in companies equities in order to take control of them. The shares held by these funds are not traded on financial markets. Their influence is moderate : According to Bain & Company, the global assets they hold is up to 3% of the value of listed companies assets.

According to Michael Story, economist at Western Asset, while some peripheral European countries will be unable to escape restructuring their debt, the euro is unlikely to collapse any time soon as a result, and should in the short to medium term strengthen its position as a leading currency as demand to join the eurozone grows from former Soviet-controlled states.

If Greece is allowed to default now, the risk of a confidence crisis and contagion is substantial. The debt of other weak eurozone countries may fall victim to speculators and the market for credit default swaps could experience difficulties again