Prime Number - 2 - NYTimes.com The annual cost, in millions of dollars, of insuring $10 million in Greek sovereign debt for five years as of Thursday. Greece's financial and political crisis, compounded by new fears about the pace of the economic recovery in the United States, sent financial markets reeling last week. The worry is that in the worst case, a Greek debt default would lead to damaging losses for European banks and replay the global panic of 2008. Markets calmed a bit after Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany retreated from her demand that private financial institutions be pressured to help rescue the Greek economy. But the potential for trouble in Europe remained.