Portugal bailout: Spain could be the next to fall

[CHIMO]

We have heard it all before. Spain is different from Portugal. A line has been drawn in the sand. There are no fundamental problems with the eurozone that would require any country to default, let alone leave the single currency altogether.

This was a plausible thesis last spring, when Greece was the country in the line of fire. Policymakers in Athens had clearly told some enormous porkies about Greece's public finances and suffered the consequences when the truth came out.

The thesis looked a bit less tenable when Ireland went the same way as Greece last Autumn, but the argument was that the former Celtic Tiger had been through a quite extraordinary housing boom-bust and was thus a special case.

Now the message is that the bailout for Portugal represents a line in the sand.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/07/portugal-bailout-spain-larry-elliott

[golfguru]

1. and USA is not far behind Spain

going off the cliff with debt.