Whoops!

While banks and European leaders hold abstract talks in foreign capitals about the impact of a potential Greek default on the euro and the world economy, something frighteningly concrete is under way in Greece: the dismantling of a middle-class welfare state in real time — with nothing to replace it.
Since 2010, the government has raised taxes and slashed pensions and state salaries across the board, in an effort to rein in the bloated public sector that today employs one in five Greeks. Last week, the government announced it would put 30,000 workers on reduced pay as a precursor to possible termination and would cut pensions again for nearly half a million public-sector retirees. NY Times

So those government guarantees are no good!

In California, Fresno County, I know retirees from the county who can't be sure which month the county goes bankrupt. We really can;t sell houses at current prices, the property tax liability for retirees is too high. But if we lower prices to market, then the county goes belly up.