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the very least, it has shown that Greece is a bad fit for the EZ, and should probably leave so they can control their own monetary policy. And it has definitely put one of the structural flaws in the whole EU project into stark relief - if they are going to have a common currency, they need better tools to distribute wealth more evenly than the hodgepodge of national, supranational, and private banks they have now, and that probably means that each member nation would have to give up even more economic autonomy than they already have. A very hard sell, especially these days.

The US works because wealth flows from the more economically productive parts of the country to the less, in the form of investment, infrastructure improvement, military/aerospace/R&D facilities, welfare, etc. It's far from perfect, and there is still a lot of inequality and resentments, but just imagine where we would be if every 3 years, Mississippi had to petition New Jersey for a loan.

I don't think that Merkel, or any of the other power players in the EU want Greece to fail, but they have budgets to balance and constituents to appease too, and cannot afford (either economically or politically) to keep throwing money at Greece forever.