Spanish banks are borrowing record amounts from the European Central Bank as the country’s financial institutions struggle to gain funding from the global capital markets.

Spanish banks borrowed €85.6bn ($105.7 billion) from the ECB last month. This was double the amount lent to them before the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 and 16.5% of net eurozone loans offered by the central bank.

This is the highest amount since the launch of the eurozone in 1999 and a disproportionately large share of the emergency funds provided by the euro’s monetary guardian, according to analysis by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Evolution. Spanish banks account for 11% of the eurozone banking system.

This just reflects Spain’s struggle to hold things together and the acute stage of Spain’s liquidity crisis. The exchange-traded fund iShares MSCI Spain Index (EWP), which corresponds to the price and yield performance of publicly traded securities in the Spanish markets, is down -24.6% this year.

This is coupled with a no growth economy that at its peak in 2006 relied on tourism and housing for 25% of GDP. Housing starts in 2006 were greater than Italy, Germany, France and U.K. COMBINED.

R&D only accounts for 1.3% of GDP. High school graduation rate is 1/2 EU average. Adjusted for GDP, Spain’s unsold housing inventory is 6 times that of America. Spain does not even have one university in the world’s top 150. Unemployment rate is 22%. Budget deficit is 11.5% of GDP. Total debt is 270% of GDP. Credit downgrades equal higher borrowing costs equal debt spiral. Looks like Spain has some work to do.