Anyway, the default has already occurred, so I must have missed the news on the Euro exit: http://www.economist.com/node/21550271
For example, a price for remaining within the Eurozone was for ensuring none of the ECB's large Greek bond holdings (approx. EUR 50bn), now or in future, will be exposed to enforced losses. This has always been politically understood.
See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15575751
The drive for greater fiscal union, a common regulatory authority, etc, that we see now is an attempt to fix such issues - ie having so much control that these defaults never happen.
Please excuse me while I try to suppress my cynicism.
Hmm...this is once again conflating defaulting with leaving the Euro. From the article you cited:
"Actually, a second [default], as Greece technically defaulted on its debts when it renegotiated a 50% write-off of its debts with its creditors earlier this year."
So Greece has defaulted, but they haven't left the Euro.
"The drive for greater fiscal union, a common regulatory authority, etc, that we see now is an attempt to fix such issues - ie having so much control that these defaults never happen."
I would say: "...that this sort of debt-binge on someone else's dime can't happen."
If you have a common currency, you also need these other mechanisms. It wasn't politically feasible to get this at the time, so the Euro was used as a "forcing function". Once you had the Euro, there really wasn't a way around more common financial control.