[galfarragem]

We can never compare Portugal with Iceland. As an objective example:

Portugal needs energy from the exterior to survive. Would anybody trust us enough to sell energy (at a reasonable price), not knowing if we would pay it [1]? By the other hand, Iceland doesnt't need the exterior as much as we, they can afford to not be trusted [2].

[1] Or we could associate to Russia, like Syriza tried..

[2] 'By harnessing the abundant hydroelectric and geothermal power sources, Iceland's renewable energy industry provides close to 85% of all the nation's primary energy - proportionally more than any other country - with 99.9% of Iceland's electricity being generated from renewables.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Iceland

[ptaipale]

Agreed, the Iceland comparison is a red herring that is repeated often but which completely bypasses how different the Iceland economic crisis was.

Iceland never had much deficit. It has a healthy public economy. Iceland had a boom of financial industry which then went bust, but it wasn't a significant part of the country's real economy.

When the banks went bust, foreign customers who lost money in the crash insisted that Iceland, the country, should compensate. The government felt they didn't, because it was not the Icelandic government that was in bankruptcy. And that was fine.

The public deficit in Greece (and, to lesser extent, Portugal, Ireland, France, Italy and now Finland) is a very different problem.

[ptaipale]

I must add that I disagree about Iceland not needing the exterior. Iceland is a very, very small country on a remote, barren island with few natural resources, and is hugely dependent on imports to make it livable in the modern sense. Iceland definitely needs trade with the exterior to survive. I would say Greece is more self-sufficient for many important things (like food) though not for geothermal energy.