Brain Drain in Spain?

            75 billion euros were withdrawn by Spaniards in the month of July, according to a recent article from CNBC. That’s roughly $94 billion. That’s also about 7% of the country’s overall output.  Are Spaniards losing hope that their money will be severely devalued? It looks that way. 

Even though the Spanish crisis is not quite at the levels seen in Greece, especially considering Spain has a stronger cushion to their economic output than Greece does, it’s not hard to see that there has been some concern. In an article posted on CNBC today, the memory of the, “corralito,” was mentioned. The corralito was the response to a bank run that occurred in Argentina in December 2001. It froze all bank accounts for 90 days and only allowed small amounts of cash to be withdrawn on a weekly basis. What it did, besides upset a lot of Argentinians, was lock the people into the Argentinian crisis and force them to accept the devaluation of the peso to the US dollar. Those who wanted to jump ship, like some have done recently in Spain, were unable to do so. Some lost everything in their Argentinian savings account, and some lost most of it. Either way, there is concern over potentially recurring events.

Great Britain has seen an increase in its employment, in part, due to the flight of individuals from these situations across Europe. People are seeking stronger currency and stability. Spain still has time to rectify it’s situation but if the major benefactors  lose faith in the economy then who will be left to save it? As much as people argue against the top 1%, they will always be needed to advance economies. Society never would have expanded if not for the man who invented the wheel. Innovators are the key prosperity and Spain seems to be losing them.