The packages have not been sufficient to calm the markets or stop the rot from spreading: 2010 ended with Fitch downgrading Portugal and putting Greece on negative rating watch.
Now it is back at the front line of gargantuan bail-out packages, wrangling over government spending and tax reform, and attempts to stop sovereign defaults further disturbing the jittery global financial system.
Maris imagines UPS deliverymen scanning and delivering packages with just a glance, nurses at hospitals receiving real-time information on patients without having to stop what they're doing and, indeed, patients with limited mobility having greater access to the world of information themselves.