We discuss the reliability of a recent global nuclear-structure calculation in regions far from {beta} stability. We focus on the results for nuclear masses, but also mention other results obtained in the nuclear-structure calculation, for example ground-state spins. We discuss what should be some minimal requirements of a nuclear mass model and study how the macroscopic-microscopic method and other nuclear mass models fullfil such basic requirements. We study in particular the reliability of nuclear mass models in regions of nuclei that were not considered in the determination of the model parameters
