To watch the Portugal debt crisis unfold is to wish someone would whisper these old, wise words in her ear: “We have found the enemy and she is us.” That’s right: it’s not dismal debt ratios that will determine the troubled country’s fate, but its stomach for doing what it must.
To date, speculators have favored discussions of KPIs, of volumetric liabilities and key indicators of financial health. Yet, debt isn’t the real problem, just as bailout money isn’t the real solution (as its neighbor, Greece has proven).
The problem, simply, is ideology. Viable rescue plans are destined to fail because leaders won’t settle for merely staying afloat—even...
