The Core

I'm not a Euro, but I think there was no good vote for the Greeks. As I understand it, a yes vote meant crippling austerity but a no vote means an inevitable exit from the euro zone and though they will then be able print drachmas to their heart's content, the drachmas would be virtually worthless for buying foreign goods. So no matter how you cut it, the Greeks are in for austerity and the EU is probably stronger without them.

That fact highlights the weakness of the EU. Historically, the US would be a lot stronger without much of the Deep South. Right now possibly stronger without Michigan, though many parts of MI are doing really well. But in general there are massive "donor" states like California, Texas and New York who run at a "profit" and massive recipient states (mostly Republican and southern by the way). But we don't talk about the dissolution of the union because some state isn't meeting it's fiscal targets.

Two observations
 - this is really sad for the Greeks.
 - Based on the last available numbers which are, granted, rather old at this point, Greece is the second worst country in the world in terms of debt/income ratio. The US is #3

The US is #11 in terms of debt/gdp, but in terms of debt/revenue from taxes (i.e. actual ability to pay bills)

Japan is still #1, with a debt as a percentage of tax revenue of about 900 percent and Greece is still in second place at about 475 percent. The big change is the U.S. jumps up to third place, with a debt to income measure of 408 percent. To add a bit more perspective, the countries in fourth, fifth, and sixth place are Iceland, Portugal, and Italy, all between 300 and 310 percent.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffreydorfman/2014/07/12/forget-debt-as-a-percent-of-gdp-its-really-much-worse/

So let's all talk about how the Greeks lived beyond their means, thought they were rich when they were poor, did not manage expenses versus revenue. Let's all talk about how they got what was coming. And let's all just hope we're not in Japan, the US, Iceland, Portugal or Italy.

"UK and Denmark were very wise not to join the Euro common currency."

Agree

And Thomas Piketty weighs in with the observation that Germany is the one country in Europe that has NEVER repaid its debts and the German Economic Miracle was as much as anything the product of the 1953 London accords to forgive German debt.

http://www.zeit.de/2015/26/thomas-piketty-schulden-griechenland/komplettansicht (I'm sure y'all know how to use Google Translate)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Agreement_on_German_External_Debts - note that listed among the creditor nations who forgave German debt was.... Greece

> .ch : 3 languages.

Yet Germanic in all of the culture, at least when it comes to business (at least in my, admittedly limited, dealings there) . I think that massively trumps the language issues

One of the more thought-provoking things I've read so far
http://www.businessinsider.com/greece-referendum-result-and-the-meaning-of-debt-2015-7

"Now, as Greece's unsustainable situation becomes clear, and as others -- Spain and Portugal, for example -- the Euro itself is under challenge. That is not surprising, given the Euro's peculiar status as a currency without a government."

John Bolton former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

if you include language being a subset (or at least related to) culture...

Sure. And that can get thorny in many parts of the US. And you certainly see how fundamental language is in, say, the Irish, Breton and Basque situations. That, by the way, is what has always made me sceptical of the whole EU project.

For decades the French imposed draconian measure to suppress Breton culture, but that is no longer considered acceptable. It doesn't seem that the Bretons have enough cultural momentum to move for independence, so the French seem to have won, but if there were a Breton revival, I could see that change and evolve to a situation more like Scotland.

All of which (Scotland, Brittany, Basque) make the Swiss situation so much more instructive.