Because European and American banks are joined at the hip, and because the Fed is the ultimate backstop for the Euro Zone, the contagion will hit here in full force a mere two weeks after Greece goes down and takes the euro and EU with it.
I suspect the derivatives problem at JP Morgan Chase is an indicator of this, and that $2B loss, which has grown to $5B, will explode exponentially when it hits the fan.
Greece is a small country with a small gdp. But they are buried under unpayable debt.
That debt is backstopped by other countries with massive debt.
Those countries are backstopped by the ECB and the IMF.
The ecb is in debt.
The imf is us.
Our country is in debt something like 15 trillion.
The fear about Greece is that when they default, it will cause a chain reaction debt bomb that no one can pay back.
No one wants to be stuck with the bill especially the Greek bill, but more than that, no one can afford the Greek bill.
Meanwhile the european leaders and obama are calling for more govt spending backed up by more debt.
When the debt bomb goes off, it will affect everyone because all the banks are interconnected and inter dependant.
Some folks think that a Greek default will be a just a regional event.
The assasination of Archduke Ferdinand was a regional event.