I'll give you a hint: 90% of Americans probably couldn't find Greece on a map, and of the 10% who could, 90% wouldn't know what the word "eurozone" meant.

As far as the Euro bailout goes, my take is that it's roughly the same as what happened in the US - too-big-to-fail banks holding too much bad debt (sovereign debt in Europe, vs mortgage, other collateral-backed, and municipal debt in the US), and maybe still too-highly leveraged using those debt 'assets' as collateral.

If the collateral (Greek, Portugese, Irish, etc bonds) defaults, not only do the banks take a huge haircut on their capital, but they also get margin calls on their leverage that they can't pay. Boom, bankpocalypse.

The German government knows this, just as the US government did, which is why they too will proceed with the bailout despite citizens' vehement opposition and at the risk of losing their next election. The alternative is something that, once it occurs, can't be undone easily, and which most citizens would probably regret once it became real.

I'm sure there are tons of details I'm missing, but haven't been following this as closely the past two years. But that's one American's take on it, fwiw.