[galfarragem]

The world trusts that they will receive the money that they lend to us. The lender doesn't care from where that money comes.

In the end we arrive to the same conclusion, EU/IMF/whatever trust Portugal enough to bail us out again.

But I understand where you want to get: "we are behaving like good boys" and making everything that "Germany" says. Would you prefer an atitude like the Greek one, "acting like a spoiled kid"? As Greece, we are a small and periferical country without any power to negotiate by ourselves - we need to associate with others - and sincerely I prefer Portugal to associate with Germany than Greece. Our best way to get through this is by being "the good boys" and man up.

[icebraining]

That's not where I want to get; I don't care about such petty considerations, nor do I agree with any of those characterizations. If it's better for us to strictly comply with the guidelines set by the lenders, I'm fine with that.

I'm simply skeptical that any of those parties (private lenders or EC/IMF/ECB) lend us money because they trust us to pay it back, and so I have to wonder why else would they lend us money.