Although the ECB is prohibited by law from providing direct fiscal aid to member governments, it may buy debt in the market to ensure the proper conduct of monetary policy.

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While the safety of euro zone economies is still considered essential to maintaining the strength of the German economy, the time for German fiscal aid to Athens may quickly be passing.

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Instead, it will likely be attached to a Senate bill called the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009.

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In fact, the Chinese appear to be filling a funding hole created by the U.S., which under fiscal pressure has been cutting aid to Latin America, a trend that continued into the 2013 budget proposal.

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Recognizing that our vaunted AAA credit rating is at stake and a default, of any magnitude, on our debt could be expensive and felt across the globe, raising the debt ceiling strikes me as yet another short-term remedy to put a band-aid on a mounting fiscal deficit as opposed to taking the initial steps towards building long, lasting fiscal reform.

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Yet, they fail to explain how a program that has been distinctly successful in promoting civil society, fiscal responsibility, and good governance abroad where other aid programs fail deserves such drastic truncation.

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So keen are some of them to get regional and agricultural aid that they might be willing to capitulate on a range of other issues in return for continuing fiscal generosity.

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The new round of international aid will prevent default and should keep Greece solvent through 2014, but the country is still in deep fiscal trouble.

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