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if somebody, 5 years ago, came to this site and suggested the disaster that is unravelling, that somebody would be labelled paranoid or crazy (extra paranoid, as almost no one was as pessimist as reality).
I have to say, that personally I also did not expect things to go so horribly. I also think that there are clear mechanisms, of how Portugal would be attacked. One would be to sue against Portugal for lost property. All type of vulture funds would use this possibility. Most probably, all payments coming from Brussels would also stop.
Yet, still I do not see how things can improve with a ECB that doesn't to its job. At the very least, politicians from Portugal should remind the ECB of its Mandate. The discussion here, has convinced me that a threat to leave the Euro if the ECB doesn;'t credibly commit to 2% inflation could even do some good.
I think the most important thing for a country leaving the Euro is how it treats its debts. If the debts gets payed, I do not think the repercussion would be such a disaster. If you leave the Euro you could in principle confiscate all savings of all your citizens and forcibly change them into new currency. The Confiscated Euro you can use to pay your debts. I understand clearly that this would be super unpopular. But as far as I can see it is the only clear way how to pay the debt and leave the Euro at the same time.
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