Güven Sak, PhD
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Double jeopardy in Turkey
I feel bad for Dr. Erdem Başçı, the governor of the Central Bank of Turkey. Just at the end of August, he surprised me by saying that the “Turkish Lira could reach 1.92…
If the Fed tapers, we have to tighten our belts
Add to this picture the political uncertainty the massive bribery and corruption probe will cause. Recently, I attended a G20 meeting in Sydney. The meeting was on the…
When is the land rent illicit?
In Turgut Özal’s time, land profits were distributed to millions and it was licit and inclusive. Not anymore. The Taksim Square has professedly become a pedestrian zone.…
Mind the gap
We have a fixation in Turkey. Every now and then, we like to emphasize that Turkey belongs to Europe. If ever a foreign government, official or publication lists Turkey…
Why did civil politics fail in making a constitution?
To begin with, when addressing this failure, we should not focus on the concrete steps taken during the process. It appears that the constitution-making process…
What is the use of the third bridge for innovativeness?
You cannot just build a bridge in the name of service procurement. I am sure somebody is calculating the yield of the project carried out with the people’s money. The…
Children of another tongue
The OECD’s new PISA exam scores were announced this week. The PISA test is a useful index to compare the educational attainment of children from different countries.…
Turkey ranks sixth in the number of recipients of doctorates at American universities
Why doesn’t Turkey remunerate the efforts of the well-trained young people? I noticed this the other day when I was checking the 2013 Transition Report of the European…
Now the state has seized supermarkets
So, who should the Venezuelan people blame? The people who try to extend their profits within a state-designed system? Not in Turkey, thank goodness. Not yet. We make do…
The BRSA’s decisions: Both timely and not (2)
So, the billion-dollar question is, why did the BRSA not step up earlier in the late 2010 or early 2011? The Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) has…
Sanctions shifting from Iran to Turkey?
Let’s try to name the winter of our discontent in Ankara. With the Geneva interim agreement, we were able to see a change in the regional landscape by way of a partial…
Why doesn't our higher level of income equality make us happier?
Turkey is one of the two OECD countries which have achieved the most rapid decrease in income gap between the rich and the poor; yet, this has not resulted in an equally…