€700 million was withdrawn from Greek banks on Monday, according to remarks made by Greek President Karolos Papoulias and reported in the Wall Street Journal. The Journal reports that between €2 and €3 billion in deposits have been withdrawn from the Greek banking system each month for the past two years. January was a high point, with €5 billion.
While the guys at DR can be pretty right wing, this piece has it on the nail. But what interests me even more is that the ordinary Greeks have been on to the game for a long time. back when the alternative thinkers were saying PIIGS are the problem, and being mocked or ignored by the terribly serious people who think they run the world, Greeks were steadily stashing away hard cash against the certainty that sometime within a reasonable frame, they would be screwed totally by their Government and the banking system.
I wonder how many of the rest of us are that far ahead of the game? Of course, people in NZ, Aus, the US and UK for example, have no history of their societies collapsing into chaos and anarchy. The Greeks have been there within the lifetime of many people still alive; they know the smell and they are taking action.
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