Richard D. Wolff

Partly the progressive (Keynesian) tilt of fiscal policy by the left coalition government (socialists, communists and greens), partly good luck enables the Portuguese to avoid the downward spiral of, say, Greece, or even the ongoing difficulties of Spain and Italy. The bg rating companies' judgements should always be taken with an extra-large grain of salt since they need to curry favor with the big governments whose debt they rate, and those governments (especially Germany and France) have worked extra hard for years to demonize Greece and any other govt leaning left much as the major private banks have.