The problem is not Apple, this is just symptoms of the crisis.
Erdogan developing his personal power and doing nonsense in all political fields (military, diplomatic, economic, democracy, minorities...) with the dream to restore the Ottoman Empire with him as a sultan is the major issue.
Turkey is a great country with a great people, but they are living difficult times. A harsh price to pay for following a megalomaniac.
Turkey has a history of currency devaluations. The government is spending too much money on free universal healthcare (Covid did not help at all) and pensions (there are even retirements at the age of 45). So long as they spend more than they save they will have these currency turmoils. Although Government debt to GDP ratio is around 42 percent it is still not sustainable as the currency is not a reserve currency like the dollar or euro. Most of the Asian economies suffered a similar fate in 1998.
Having a low debt to GDP ratio doesn’t help if nobody is willing to lend you money. The yoeld on 10 year Turkish bonds is ~20%. In contrast it’s way cheaper for Greece to pay interest on their debt despite having an over 200% debt ratio since they can borow with much lower interest (~1.3%).
The US since Obama has put many informal sanctions on Turkey to choke the economy. In fact Obama failed to overthrow Erdogan during a coup attempt in July 2016 where he even tried to kill Erdogan and his family. They even managed to bomb the Turkish parliament during the CIA orchestrated coup attempt. The ring leader of the failed coup attempt resides under protection in Pennsylvania and had his residency endorsed by Graham Fuller, CIA head for Moslem countries, and other neocons.
Please this is Hacker News not Erdogan daily. You are free to share the preposterous and outlandish propaganda used by Erdogan to justify his authoritarian reforms but don’t expect people to actually believe it.
It’s even pointed in the BBC article you are citing despite it being overly sympathetic in my opinion:
> To many Turkey-watchers, it smacks of outlandish conspiracy theories. But polls show a majority of Turks firmly believe that the CIA was involved in the failed coup.
"More than 50,000 people have been arrested in Turkey pending trial over links to Mr Gulen. Another 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from jobs in the public and private sectors since the coup attempt on 15 July 2016."
So it is a "coup" organized by 200.000 people? Or the destruction of all political opposition supported by some nice storytelling?
It is always a good strategy for candidate dictators to point out the evil foreigners... It guarantees the simple-minded people support.
A coup organized by a cult with 200.000 members, who mostly obtained positions in government via nepotism. That shouldn't look so outlandish considering what happened in South Korea.
Also to say, sacking people with cult involvement had universal support. The opposition parties always held very strong anti-cult positions for ever.
Funnily enough, the cult itself was involved in destruction of political opposition via conspiracy (the Balyoz case) back when they were besties with the ruling party.
In an open economy, the money is printed from the public demand. The more demand, the more printing, the more inflation...
And the money demand is controlled down by raising interest rates, but Erdogan has ordered the central bank to keep them low, against the economists consensus.
So massive speculation starts:
People take a loan in lira (i. e. print money), turn the money into something else (buy an object, or turn to EUR or USD for people who can access this market), wait some time, sell back to pay the loan with a share of the value... They keep the difference and start again with more leverage. And the volume of liras increases more for a lower and lower value (inflation).
The only way out is to raise the interest rates before it all goes out of control. The opposite of current policy.
>In an open economy, the money is printed from the public demand. The more demand, the more printing, the more inflation...
Not really? Most developed countries have a central bank that "prints" money by doing interest rate changes, which in turn is determined by inflation rate targets.
cool. i don't know what to say. this is like too much to process. you are willing to let the most vulnerable, the poorest of the poor die because they can't afford healthcare because you are concerned it will cause a rise in interest rates in future, economy?
no wonder i live in a third world country where you can get medical attention regardless of who you are.
for a country where unskilled labourers earn "Rs. 500" or $10-12 a day, this level of cover is like magic.
the 50 mil population, almost half the population is covered by this scheme alone, not to mention almost free government paid hospitals and dispensaries and other stuff. do you think for these many people, economy and debt and savings matter when their loved one is suffering and they don't have money to pay to a doctor?
No country or region should benefit from being a reserve currency. The reserve should be sorry to say a crypto currency that can't be willy nilly printed causing pain to those that aren't benefiting from having a reserve currency.
20 comments
[ 1.9 ms ] story [ 57.9 ms ] threadErdogan developing his personal power and doing nonsense in all political fields (military, diplomatic, economic, democracy, minorities...) with the dream to restore the Ottoman Empire with him as a sultan is the major issue.
Turkey is a great country with a great people, but they are living difficult times. A harsh price to pay for following a megalomaniac.
It is scary how people can make these kinds of choices.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42198399
It’s even pointed in the BBC article you are citing despite it being overly sympathetic in my opinion:
> To many Turkey-watchers, it smacks of outlandish conspiracy theories. But polls show a majority of Turks firmly believe that the CIA was involved in the failed coup.
"More than 50,000 people have been arrested in Turkey pending trial over links to Mr Gulen. Another 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from jobs in the public and private sectors since the coup attempt on 15 July 2016."
So it is a "coup" organized by 200.000 people? Or the destruction of all political opposition supported by some nice storytelling?
It is always a good strategy for candidate dictators to point out the evil foreigners... It guarantees the simple-minded people support.
Also to say, sacking people with cult involvement had universal support. The opposition parties always held very strong anti-cult positions for ever.
Funnily enough, the cult itself was involved in destruction of political opposition via conspiracy (the Balyoz case) back when they were besties with the ruling party.
And the money demand is controlled down by raising interest rates, but Erdogan has ordered the central bank to keep them low, against the economists consensus.
So massive speculation starts:
People take a loan in lira (i. e. print money), turn the money into something else (buy an object, or turn to EUR or USD for people who can access this market), wait some time, sell back to pay the loan with a share of the value... They keep the difference and start again with more leverage. And the volume of liras increases more for a lower and lower value (inflation).
The only way out is to raise the interest rates before it all goes out of control. The opposite of current policy.
Inflation has passed 45% this year already.
Not really? Most developed countries have a central bank that "prints" money by doing interest rate changes, which in turn is determined by inflation rate targets.
no wonder i live in a third world country where you can get medical attention regardless of who you are.
yeah, last year or so, a scheme was launched. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayushman_Bharat_Yojana
cover of ₹5 lakh (US$6,600) per family per year
for a country where unskilled labourers earn "Rs. 500" or $10-12 a day, this level of cover is like magic.
the 50 mil population, almost half the population is covered by this scheme alone, not to mention almost free government paid hospitals and dispensaries and other stuff. do you think for these many people, economy and debt and savings matter when their loved one is suffering and they don't have money to pay to a doctor?