It's no surprise that bets are being placed that Portugal will follow Ireland into the IMF-EU bailout: the dramatic flattening of the interest rate or yield curve between what Lisbon pays to borrow for three years and the cost it pays for 10 years tells the story. The annual cost of Portugal borrowing for 10 years rose only slightly to reach 6.74%, while the annual market rate on new three-year borrowings meanwhile soared deep into the bailout territory, at 5.3%.

Paying anything above 5% indicates a bailout is looming because it is the price Greece is paying for its bailout cash since last May. The markets were saying clearly this weekend that the IMF and EU teams will soon be heading south to Lisbon.

Meanwhile, the annual interest rate for Spain to borrow for 10 years rose by almost half a percentage point last week to 5.1% but the rate on its three-year borrowings remains well outside the bailout territory this weekend at just under 4%.

In short, Spain can not go into the bailout because with the €750bn pledged between Europe and the IMF there is not enough money in the bailout pots to cover the debts of a national economy eight times the size of Ireland's.

The €750bn pledged comprises €440bn in Klaus Regling's bailout facility in Luxembourg from the euro group of 16 countries, the €60bn in the EC pot provided by all 27 EU states and the €200bn contributed by the IMF.

Germany last week swatted away talk it would inject more money for the simple reason that the bigger the bailout, the more likely that markets would force Spain to accept the bailout cash.

Spain in a bailout situation would presage the destruction of the euro.