Portugal's Economy: The Importance of Not Being Greece

I found this article extremely interesting because it shifted focus away from Greece and instead to Portugal. Rather than facing the same fiscal issues as Greece did (and does), Portugal has a growth problem. In short, it's not happening. This is stagnating the economy and causing some economists to view the country as the next Greece. Portugal's GDP growth is well below the euro nation average. According to the article, a slow-moving bureaucracy, inefficient courts, poor schools and state-supported pockets of the economy protected from competition are combining to hold Portugal back. This once more makes me think about Japan and wonder if in fact the Japanese economy will also eventually suffer due to its stagnating economy.