It was Draghi’s bond buying that had given Portugal shelter from the Greek storm. Eligibility for inclusion in the ECB program, in turn, depended, by fiat of the ECB, on the rating of the international credit agencies. The best-known ratings agencies—Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s—had all downgraded Portugal to junk in 2011. The only exception was DBRS, the least well known of the international ratings agencies. It was on DBRS’s bond rating that Portugal’s membership in the “respectable club” of Europe depended.
