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Meanwhile, In Turkey…
I used to cover Turkish politics, monetary policy and the lira as a matter of course, and some reade
Erdogan is also facing the end of his term limit. What are the odds he gets that limit changed.
If he’s healthy, he’ll try for another term. AKP’s already hinting around at it.
US constitutional crisis and now Erdogan’s Turkey back to back articles, plus a fumbling resistance from “the other side” in America is really challenging my “things have to get worse before they can get better” theory. Feeling pretty helpless and hopeless.
Erdogan must be passing ideas to Trump for how to weaken a currency. Maybe Trump pushing for a constitutional showdown is part of his grand plan to weaken the dollar.
This feels like the second awakening in my life. The first was when I realized the religion I was surrounded by as a kid was a fairy tale. This time I’m awakening to the much darker reality that the institutions and norms that I took for granted are much more fragile than I realized. Greed, malice, and ignorance are a toxic stew.
I occasionally look at the “other CPI” index (Corruption Perceptions Index).
Corruption is the number one deterrent to improving the lives of the global population, in entirety.
Out of 180 countries, US is ranked 25th most corrupt (shameful), but Turkey is ranked about 115.
Sorry for confusion- US is 25th least corrupt. Denmark is ranked “least corrupt”.
A few years back I participated in a foreign affairs discussion group at our local library and led several sessions on Middle Eastern countries. Inevitably, I would be asked about corruption and would try to respond as dispassionately as possible. But I would always conclude with “Thank God we don’t have to worry about that here in New Jersey.”
I started paying closer attention to Turkey initially due to coverage here, and then because I moved to PA within wandering distance of Gulen’s safe house. But one thing that really got my attention as a 20-year former resident of DC was the sight of Erdogan’s thugs jumping out of their cars to beat on some protesters less than 2 miles from the White House, after Trump rolled out the red carpet for a visit during his first term. I was actually surprised there wasn’t much blowback from anyone, including Trump, though in his defense, I suppose he might have been busy taking notes.