Zero real interest rate
Fatih Özatay, PhD
30 June 2011
What if the ratio of bank deposits to national income remained at the 1980s values? Let be rewind the story first: in 1970-79 period, the ratio of total deposits at banks to national income was in average 14.5 percent. The ratio increased to 18.7 percent in 1980-89 period and to 23.2 percent in 1990-99 period. The ratios for 2007 and 2009 were 43.3 percent and 55.8 percent, respectively.
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Will Turkey risk fighting with Syria?
Nihat Ali Özcan, PhD
29 June 2011
U.S. taxpayers have spent $ 1 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many Western soldiers have lost lives there as well. No one in the United States or in the Europe wants to waste money and lives anymore. The politicians and generals are under serious pressure. In Western democracies, citizens have demonstrated in the elections that they do not want to fight.
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'The library is better than the cafeteria'
Güven Sak, PhD
28 June 2011
If the Prime Minister respects books that much, why can't I buy books easily on Amazon? Recently, when talking about the spread of electronic books, I said, "I have been using www.amazon.com to order books for a long time now. They somehow find and send the books right to my desk in just a couple of days." I think I spoke too soon and overlooked a system that had been functioning perfectly for years. They can no longer send the books I order right to my desk. The customs administration has introduced a new regulation that makes the process difficult if the number of packages delivered from abroad to you exceeds a certain limit. This is a new process design that raises additional financial and time costs. It is books we are talking about. Of course, the number exceeds the limit. People wr
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International developments and credit demand
Fatih Özatay, PhD
28 June 2011
It is signaled that business people tend to be more cautious due to the current milieu facing the world. The Greek parliament has to adopt the planned budget measures for a certain part of the loan extended for Greece to be released and for the additional bailout package decided by the European Union to be approved. The voting is scheduled on Wednesday. The ruling party holds 155 of the 300 seats in the parliament. But it is announced that some MPs from the ruling party declared that they are against certain proposed measures. Meanwhile, a 48-hour general strike is taking place. Still, it is expected, or more correctly hoped, that the measures will be adopted with the support of some MPs from the opposition party. The unrest about Greece The circumstances in the neighbor Greece closely
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Some observations on the academic life -4
Fatih Özatay, PhD
25 June 2011
It will be useful to group universities as "research" universities and "other" universities. Many universities are completely introverted in contradiction with what the notion of university presupposes. Some of these are big universities which offer doctorate level programs. This means that they do not make effort to hire academics from different universities. What is more, they do not send young academics to abroad for doctorate studies. The members of such universities do not at all attend the national conferences.
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Turkey belongs to Europe
Güven Sak, PhD
25 June 2011
I first saw Gaziantep only about five years ago. My fault, totally: I have to admit. What struck me in Gaziantep at first sight was its close resemblance to my hometown, Bursa. That astonished me at the time. Another fault, I know. Gaziantep is in the southeast of Asia Minor, while Bursa is in the northwest. But they look very much alike. Especially nowadays with the opening of new shopping malls in Gaziantep, they resemble each other more.
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“We were building rockets while the Turks were building hotels”
Güven Sak, PhD
24 June 2011
The skills set Russians acquired while building rockets earned them Yandex. Why was Eric Schmidt in Turkey? I believe he was in Turkey not for Turkey. He was here to protect the dominance of Google, of which he is the CEO. Against what did he want to protect Google? Russia's Yandex has developed to rival Google. What is the benefit of this to Turkey? It has a limited range of benefits. Why? The deal here is the "they are partners, we are just a market," case as highlighted by former Prime Minister Erbakan, who died in February. He is still right. Let me tell you why this is so and why Turkey has a difficult task ahead of it.
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BRSA decisions with an alternative viewpoint
Fatih Özatay, PhD
23 June 2011
I am not arguing that the latest BRSA decisions were in the wrong direction. But the BRSA did not take a decision that will strengthen the effectiveness of the CBT decisions. A number of articles and comments were released in the last three days following the latest decisions of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA). The decisions were on consumer loans excluding vehicle and mortgage loans. It is maintained that with the BRSA decisions, interest on the mentioned loans will increase slightly which will limit the credit expansion (as desired) by affecting the rise in credit demand negatively. It is a subject matter of another discussion to what extent these claims are valid.
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Turkey-Syria-Iran triangle is being redrawn
Nihat Ali Özcan, PhD
23 June 2011
The invasion of Iraq made the Sunni-Shiite polarization in the Middle East more apparent than ever. This was more obvious during the struggle over Iraq. Turkey tried hard to locate itself beyond the orbit of this polarization and sought ways to develop good relations with both sides: that is, Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia on the one hand and the new Iraq, Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, on the other hand. Turkey utilized various opportunities during those times.
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How can Turkey be a model for the Arab countries?
21 June 2011
Last week I attended a meeting held by the Arab League General Secretariat in Cairo. Representatives from the Arab Union member countries discussed how Turkey could be a model for Arab countries that were going through process of renewal. My role in the meeting was to share Turkey's experience in the field of economic development. The best part of the meeting was the debate session. The quality of the questions on Turkey's economy asked during the meeting confirmed the curiosity and the interest of Arab countries about Turkey and their appetite for learning lessons from the Turkish experience.
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