They'll stop funding U.S. fiscal deficits and profligate bailout packages.

FORBES: Asia's Credit Squeeze

The packages have not been sufficient to calm the markets or stop the rot from spreading: 2010 ended with Fitch downgrading Portugal and putting Greece on negative rating watch.

ECONOMIST: A bearish perspective on the market in 2011

And there is nothing to stop cable firms from selling their own subsidised boxes, with their own packages of channels.

ECONOMIST: Tests for television