Portugal's rigid, semi-feudal class structure, similar to its southwestern neighbors Andalusia and Extremadura that also exported so many explorers, needed a clerical-conservative functional substitute for fascism to enforce its rule from 1926-74. In the spring and summer of 1974, when I lived in Lisbon, Portugal's elites figured out how to do a Gattopardo, change things so that things remain the same--ditch the fascism part and let Portugal's class pyramid mutate and continue in modified form under formal democratic institutions.

The combination of squalor and opulence and increased concentration of wealth into fewer urban areas--welcome to Manhattan, SF, Boston, London and LA--is a feature not a bug of financialized capitalism's winners take all tournament market.

The system is sawing off the tree branch upon which it sits, until an FDR or other reformer gets elected in a crisis to save capitalism from the capitalists.The saw works faster and creates more squalor in poorer, less prepared peripheral countries with less robust institutions.

Best from jetlagged in Lisbon, first visit in 48 years.