Greece should have been allowed to default, if only to break the global culture-belief that bailouts will always happen - through write-offs/restructuring/cash relief.
Over the past few decades sovereign near-defaults were always met with support and sustenance -
It became OK to default. See here's a list of sovereign defaults [courtesy of
http://www.davemanuel.com/2010/02/12/the-last-13-major-sovereign-bond-defaults/] - my view is that it inculcated a culture of living beyond one's means.
Venezuela, July 1998 - defaulted on $270 million worth of domestic currency bonds
Russia, August 1998 - a massive $72,709,000,000 default that rattled the entire global economy.
Ukraine, September 1998 - $1.27 billion dollar default
Pakistan, July 1999 - defaulted in July of 1999 but quickly resolved the situation
Ecuador, August 1999 - missed a payment, leading an an eventual restructuring of over 90% of their bonds. Default amount was around $6.6 billion
Ukraine, January 2000 - defaulted again (1.06 billion) in January of 2000. ir c
Peru, September 2000 - defaulted on $4.87 billion of debt but rectified the situation within 30 days
Argentina, November 2001 - a massive $82.26 billion dollar default that once again rattled the global economy and worldwide markets.
Moldova, June 2002 - defaulted on $145 million worth of debt, only to rectify the situation a short while later, once to default once again
Uruguay, May 2003 - Argentina's troubles spread to Uruguay, and the government of Uruguay defaulted on $5.7 billion dollars worth of debt in May of 2003.
Dominican Republic, April 2005 - Defaulted on $1.62 billion dollars worth of debt in April of 2005.
Belize, December 2006 - Defaulted on $242 million dollars worth of debt in December of 2006
Ecuador, December 2008 - Defaulted on $3.2 billion dollars worth of debt obligations after calling several of their previous debt offerings "illegal and illegitimate".
Similarly, the LTCM blow-up met with concerted Fed and bank action through various measured to mitigate the losses. Message to other banks
It's OK to speculate beyond one's means! It may not be far-fetched to assume that this could be one of the factors that led banks to lend irrationally in the housing market!
Could it be the bailouts are themselves perpetuating yet more crises, each larger than the previous?