Capital flight

Capital flight is the popular idea that invested wealth leaves one country for another. While gold and other commodities always move to those markets placing the highest value on them, neither invested wealth (capital goods) nor a nation's irredeemable paper money leaves a country. Only their values "flee," usually because investors (capitalists), as a result of new information or fears, have readjusted downward their appraisal of the future values of such investments (securities or monetary units). Investors profit from such a situation only when they correctly anticipate changes in the future market values before they actually occur. Capital flight is actually a loss in confidence that results in a drop in values.