Can The PIIGS Tail Wag The Global Economy Dog?

These two charts distill the essence of what is currently mesmerizing markets and economies around the world: the growing likelihood of one or more PIIGS defaults, which could potentially involve several trillion dollars worth of debt. Surely, the thinking goes, a multi-trillion dollar default would absolutely devastate the Eurozone economy, dragging most other economies down into an abyss even worse than the one we teetered on the edge of in late 2008.