Countries get AAA credit ratings when the market thinks they are low risk, and lower ratings as the risk rises. Few people seem to be asking what these ratings and risks mean. It is quite literally the risk you may not get your money back, for the exact same reason that personal loans may be granted at a higher rate when they are refused at a lower rate.

So the big boys who lent the money did so in the clear knowledge that they did so at the risk of losing it all.

Now countries or personal, the lenders don't like losing it even when they saw the risk, so send the bailiffs into get what they can back, which is essentially what is happening in Greece. (you've got ports? We'll have them!)

So we should spare the sanctimony: Greece was foolish to get itself into the position it is, but let's recognise that the lenders are not on some high moral ground of reclaiming what is rightly theirs, but people who made a fair bet, lost, and are trying to grab what they can to compensate.