Turkey’s justice deficit
Güven Sak, PhD
23 December 2011
The courts do not function effectively. This is why Turkey fails to achieve innovation-driven growth. It created a great uproar during the 2001 crisis: The possibility of selling to a mediator the right to collect uncollectible debts, as is done abroad. A banker friend of mine said, “This system cannot work in Turkey. Here, only the creditor can collect the credit.” It was then that I realized that the securitization that has been pushing American banks to bankruptcy is difficult in Turkey. In other words, it is Turkey’s justice deficit that has saved us. Are you aware that Turkey’s current account deficit is accompanied by a justice deficit? We know how to set rules, but we fail to implement them. Why? Are we lacking sanctions? No, there is a sanction for infringing on almost any rule. Th
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No innovation without a new constitution
Güven Sak, PhD
20 December 2011
Turkey has to “be realistic and demand the impossible” for a new constitution. This is the only way it can become the tenth largest economy of the world. Have you ever thought if the innovation process in an economy and the new constitution might be associated? This is what the Worldwide Governance Indicators published by the World Bank reveals. In my consideration, no innovation can be made in Turkey without a new constitution. Let me tell you what I saw, and then you decide.
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Between Sarkozy and Erdogan
Güven Sak, PhD
17 December 2011
A new problem is looming between France and Turkey. Its origin, however, does not lie in Anatolia, but in France's domestic politics. Europe's financial crisis remains to be solved. The continent is moving towards a fiscal union, with mechanisms for short-term liquidity provision taking shape. But there is still the issue of reigniting the engines of growth in Europe's economies. This is a herculean task, directly related to changing the social contract between Europe's people and its governments. It is not about French and the others being lazy, but about dysfunctional laws on labor, retail and other outdated legislation on industry. Sarkozy was elected to change the course of France. Remember how enthusiastic the French business community was when he was elected? Look where we are now: a
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Bear in mind Maynard's warning
Güven Sak, PhD
16 December 2011
“One thing that has always surprised me about the Turkish economy is that it has ended up with accumulating wealth at the end of all periods of imbalance.” The Turkish economy grew by 9.6 percent in the first nine months of 2011. Over the same period, the Chinese and Indian economies grew by 9.4 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively. Among the top ten of the fast growth list, eight of them are China, India, and their suppliers. The remaining two are the only ones of their kind: Turkey and Israel. Let me pose the first question in my mind without belaboring: Is it a good thing that Turkey grew by 9.6 percent in the first nine months of 2011? The answer: Any form of growth is definitely good. Any form of growth contributes to the accumulation of wealth and resources. Here is the second quest
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The crisis did not hit the Turkey 25
Güven Sak, PhD
13 December 2011
Where will a company that has an annual turnover of US$ 1 billion and that grows annually by 250 percent in average be in five years? Recently, the 25 fastest growing companies in Turkey were announced under the leadership of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB). The companies that made it onto the list are available at this link: http://bit.ly/rqTiWL. The list involves companies that demonstrated the fastest growth performance during the 2008-2010 period. Did you know that the average annual growth of the Turkey 25 companies over this three-year period was 250 percent? Or have you heard that the total annual turnover of these companies is almost worth US$ 1 billion? Did you know that their employment grew by 143 percent and reached around 5000? I think we have no
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Russia voted for instability!
Güven Sak, PhD
10 December 2011
Russia was the first to transform, and Soviet nondemocratic elections gave way to ones scarcely better. Recent surveys indicate Egypt has the same tendency. Elections for the 450-seat Russian State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, were held Dec. 4, 2011. United Russia, the party of Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, won only 49.5 percent of the popular vote, down from 64 percent in the 2007 elections. United Russia lost its absolute majority necessary to change the Russian constitution singlehandedly. They previously did this to enable the Putin-Medvedev job-swap. Looking at election results, is it fair to say that Russia voted for instability this time? I am worried about these results, despite the anti-Putin protests. Now I love democracy just as muc
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Would you let your daughter marry an entrepreneur?
Güven Sak, PhD
09 December 2011
A good education is the foundation of entrepreneurship. A person who is not aware of the world cannot become an entrepreneur, particularly in the current era. Last week, the Second Annual Entrepreneurship Summit was held in Istanbul. The first meeting was held in Washington under the auspices of US president Barack Obama. The second summit, in Turkey, was hosted by prime minister Erdoğan, and the third summit will take place in the United Arab Emirates. Obama would have attended the summit in Istanbul if the US elections had not been so close; he was unable to find time for the meeting in his schedule. US vice-president Biden attended the summit in his place. The meeting was not composed of boring sessions about the definition and the history of entrepreneurship. The main purpose was to ce
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How many centimeters of subway line have been constructed in Ankara since Karayalçın?
Güven Sak, PhD
06 December 2011
Local politics concentrate on business follow-ups in Ankara. Ministries, meanwhile, will have to focus on fulfilling the demands of interests instead of on policy making. Yesterday, I realized that I have not been writing any commentaries about Ankara. I have been living in Ankara since 1979, when I moved here from Bursa to study. I write assertively about national and world matters, but I do not write at all about the city in which I live. Is this normal? I don’t think so. It is a deficiency of Turkey that there are no economists in universities studying the competitiveness of cities.
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Medvedev’s remarks on Armenia and connectivity
Güven Sak, PhD
03 December 2011
Turkey needs to design intermodal transport networks in the Black Sea region to pave the way for more interaction and fully deploy its capabilities across its neighborhood. What do Russia, Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania have in common? They are all members of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization, (BSEC) which was established in 1992. The BSEC does not serve its purpose well, if you ask me. Its member states’ economies differ in their structure and levels of development.
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It was the debt crisis that made Washington the capital city.
Güven Sak, PhD
02 December 2011
The current issue under debate in Europe is whether the European Union will take on the sovereign Euro bonds of countries (states) as a supra-national or a supra-state agency. I guess now is the moment of truth for Europe. The decision is not economic, but highly political. The day before, central banks stepped in to provide dollar liquidity. This decision, however, was in fact window dressing. Political issues require political solutions. As time has been wasted, Europe’s banking crisis has turned into a political crisis. The markets have been waiting for a political decision from European leaders. There appear two roads ahead: either European Union countries will engage in a deeper federation all together or will take their own paths individually. Just as the case was in the United State
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