Wonderful stop-over of 24 hours in Lisbon. So changed and so the same with respect to 20
years ago, last stop. Exquisite bacalhau, thank you Luis and Pedro.

Portugal’s spread with Germany is at 9,5% and its policies are determined by the so-called “troika”, the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission. Here read the 3-year program the country has to adopt to receive further financing. Duly visited quarterly, Portuguese politicians cannot miss any of the targets (they would have to fix that) nor suggest new policies not included in the memorandum unless the troika has been consulted.

My Portuguese friends are happy that the country can finally do the reforms it wasn’t able to do on its own. However, the spread has risen since the the memorandum was signed from 6,63% to 9,5%,  almost by 300 basis points, while the Italian spread has increased by 350 basis points in the same period.

Was it worth it? All this wasted democracy?