The Portuguese View on Economic Crisis and Government

While Cody, Scott and I were in Porto, we stayed at the home of the Corte-Real family. After dinner, I had a short conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Corte-Real about the economic downturn. It turns out that Mr. Corte-Real works as a banker in the second-largest Portuguese city, Porto. So, I was naturally curious to get his take on the crisis and where he thought it would all be heading, especially since Portugal is one of the nations that is suffering the most in the wake of the economic downturn.

Mr. Corte-Real explained that there was simply no more money in Portugal to lend. He said credit was no longer available because much of the Portuguese funds were tied up in toxic assets in both the United States and in Europe. Because that money was gone, banks were concerned with remaining solvent, and as such, made the lending process very, very difficult to anyone. Thus, no one could get the funding needed for large purchases, which slowed the already struggling Portuguese economy to new levels and threw the government into new levels of extraordinary debt. Mr. Corte-Real said Portugal didn’t even make enough money in a single year just to pay off the interest on its governmental debt.

As to the future of the country and of their family, Mr. and Mrs. Corte-Real were obviously concerned. They were unhappy with the leadership that their government had provided, and they were somewhat resentful of the fact that most of the crisis had happened because of the problems in America’s market, although they understood that the world economy is very intertwined. They remained hopeful that things would change. For the good of Portugal and the Corte-Real family, I hope things change too.