I pose similar questions about the sustainability of the Eurozone...there are weak links and there is a lot of complacency...Greece and a few others come to mind. Could Germany carry the ball? Two world wars were fought because Germany had ideas about taking over and running Europe...perhaps they end up dominating economically this time...but what's to be gained by that? A lot of debt forced on the Germans with no growth to sustain it in the long run...in fact, a drag on its reserves and civil war would result. Unless there is a concerted effort by all countries in the Eurozone to pull together and support each other in their efforts to deal with debt issues and actively develop and pursue new areas of sustainable growth, it will fail.
A similar fate will fall onto the rest of the world's countries unless they start working together to deal with debt issues and actively develop and pursue new areas of meaningful and sustainable growth...not simply produce "the latest and greatest cell phone." But first, each country must start looking after their own "weak links"...high unemployment, for one...starvation in some countries...and genocide in others.
Just like the human body...it cannot function and prosper properly if it has a weak heart or severe problems with its skeletal framework...it must be fixed and nourished.
More thoughts on where to begin to fix this problem are in my previous post: http://strawberryblondesmarketsummary.blogspot.com/2011/07/holy-grail-and-maslows-hierarchy-of.html