Success or Failure - It Depends on Your Point of View

Abraham Lincoln once said that "Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm."
For me, that sums up the European Monetary Zone's continuing efforts to save Greece from its inevitable financial bankruptcy, which will be followed by the bankruptcies of Portugal and Ireland. Spain and Italy are on the waiting list for hospital beds. It's really not funny at all, except that the Eurozone leaders keep announcing that they've fixed the problems just before another problem pops up. "Going from failure to failure without losing their enthusiasm."
China, meanwhile, seems to think its money (or rather its US Dollar currency reserves) are safe in the Eurozone, because it keeps dabbling in Euro loans. It ought to be said, however, that China is undoubtedly far more interested in diversifying its reserves out of Dollars than in saving the Euro from collapse.
Brazil's interest rates are climbing to keep pace with its inflation rate. Ditto India.
That leaves Russia - Mother Russia, who just may be the best of the BRIC countries touted as the leaders of tomorrow a little while ago. BRIC - Brazil, Russia, India, China. They were booming in 2009 - 2010, but 2011 seems to have abandoned them because their domestic economies are suffering from inflation and their foreign trade is slowing sown.
But, Russia is quietly moving ahead. Its companies (whether they are really private or government-owned is a question for another day) are placing their shares on the Hong Kong market. Russian private and public bonds are selling well in Europe as Europeans look to diversify out of Euros at about the same pace as China is diversifying into them.
Russia is not flamboyant, unless you happen to be invited to a Russian party, but it is, I sense, earnestly engaged in building its economic future. 
Perhaps when the dust has finally settled on the world financial crisis, we'll be right back where we started - two superpowers, Russia and the United States. But, this time they'll be friends instead of enemies. I surely hope so, anyway.