Portugal next as EMU's Máquina Infernal keeps ticking by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Portugal next as EMU's Máquina Infernal keeps ticking
22 November 2010, by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (The Telegraph)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/8149932/Portugal-next-as-EMUs-Maquina-Infernal-keeps-ticking.html

Excerpt:

The Portuguese seemed baffled - and pained - that investors should link their country in any way with Greece or Ireland. I am afraid they must come to terms very soon with some unpleasant facts.

So must Europe’s leaders, who comfort themselves that Greece is a special case because it cheated, and that Ireland is a special case because it allowed its "Anglo-Saxon" banks to go berserk. They have yet to acknowledge the deeper truth that monetary union has insidiously destabilised much of Europe and trapped a ring of largely innocent countries in depression.

In my experience it is hazardous for English-speaking journalists to write about Portugal without being accused of betraying the Aliança Velha, or pursuing a perfidious Palmerstonian agenda.

It is an article of faith - an Iberian trait - that Portugal is the victim of an orchestrated calumny intended to divert attention from a bankrupt Britain, or America. The rating agencies are deemed agents of Anglo-Saxon hegemony.

So with some trepidation, let me point out that Portugal will have a current account deficit of 10.3% of GDP this year, 8.8% in 2011, and 8.0% in 2012, according to the OECD.

That is to say, Portugal will be unable to pay its way in the world by a huge margin even after draconian austerity.