The Turkish state is Internet illiterate
Güven Sak, PhD
15 October 2013
The Turkish state is Internet-illiterate. It has no interest in the progress of the Internet economy. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013 was recently announced. The academy decided to award the prize jointly to Martin Karpluss, Michael Levitt, and Arieh Warshel for using computer models to successfully simulate chemical experiments. The prize winner scientists had laid the foundation for the computer modeling of complex chemical processes. In the past, Nobel Prize winner chemists studied at their desks using a pencil and a piece of paper, or at the blackboard with chalk. Today, technological chance has been rapidly paving the way for scientific development. Information and communication technologies (ICT) change each and every aspect of the world as well as scientific studies. And the chang
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The politics of polarized country
Güven Sak, PhD
12 October 2013
Actions speak louder than words. The Constitutional Reconciliation Commission in Ankara’s Parliament is still working. In principle, all of the four political parties are equally represented there. They are drafting the new constitution of the country. The new constitution was supposed to be the beacon of democracy and liberty in completing Turkey’s transformation process. Yet everybody in Ankara is acting as if there was no problem with the constitution process. Actions though, speak louder than words. The new democracy package says it all: Turkey’s transformation process does not look like it will come up with a new constitution any time soon. Democratization needs to wait. It’s the politics of a polarized country stuck in the mud. Let me tell you why.The looming question in An
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Let's both eat and lose weight
Güven Sak, PhD
11 October 2013
It's good that Turkey has a medium-term plan, but I don't understand how we can increase our domestic savings rate while at the same time maintain growth based on domestic demand. The Medium-Term Program (MTP) was announced the other day. The MTP calls for discipline for the public sector for the next three years. It's good. I went through it. But it left the taste in my mouth, like those television programs that say, "Let's both eat and lose weight." That's quite nice, actually. You both put no limits on yourself and continue to eat, and you lose weight miraculously. At the same time, all of your test levels fall to optimum levels. Wouldn't that be great? People definitely want to believe in this. You make no effort, but you lose weight. Look how I got this way.
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Latest projections
Fatih Özatay, PhD
10 October 2013
The Medium Term Program estimates lower GDP growth for 2013 and 2014 compared to the previous program. After a series of “emotional” commentaries, today I will go back to figures. I am afraid some of my readers find such pieces “dry.” But someone has to assess these developments as they turn out to affect lives of us all. I promise I will keep numbers at minimum.
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Turkey is talent-deprived…
Ozan Acar
09 October 2013
First a note: “Creativity” is the unearthing valuable ideas, “creative” is an individual who has such ideas, and “creative country” is a country that is conducive to the flourishing of creative people.
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Obama too will know his place
Güven Sak, PhD
08 October 2013
Everyone has to know his or her place, including President Obama, who is in his second term as the leader of the most powerful country of the world. The US government was shut down because the American Congress, using its budget right, did not approve the government budget. Here in Turkey, the executor of the budget right, the Grand National Assembly, has been unable to see the audit reports on public institutions prepared by the Court of Accounts because the reports have not been submitted to the Assembly for some time now. Which one do you think is more democratic? I vote for the former. Let me tell you why.
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Please just tell us what to remember and what to forget
Fatih Özatay, PhD
08 October 2013
Why are we supposed to remember the total GDP loss during the 1994 and 2001 crises but ignore that the loss was higher in the 2009 crisis? When I was in secondary boarding school I used to get beaten up several times by some study-hour instructors and the deputy principle, especially in the first year. Sometimes it was because of a glass broken while we were playing ball, or because I could not have had a haircut for my late aunt who used to keep guard of my pocket money was not at home. Or there were times when I was slapped by my study-hour instructors for secretly reading the novels our Turkish teachers recommended us to under my desk. They would say that I will not grow into an important person as I read novels instead of studying my textbooks.
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A series of oddities (2)
Fatih Özatay, PhD
05 October 2013
The average of officially declared inflation targets since 2006 averaged 5.3 percent while actual inflation over the same period had an average of 8.3 percent. I have new items to add to the list of oddities in Turkey. Inflation gets the first place today. The average of officially declared inflation targets since 2006 averaged 5.3 percent while actual inflation over the same period had an average of 8.3 percent. This is not because inflation rates were initially too high, pushing up the average despite the downwards trend achieved later on. Rather, inflation rates have been floating up and down around the average since 2006. For instance, the average between January 2012 and September 2013 was 8.3 percent! This could be acceptable.
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Wonder why Iran has invented Rouhani?
Güven Sak, PhD
05 October 2013
I was at a TEPAV-BP-Energy Ministry event when I saw why Iran had invented Hasan Rouhani: in 2011, the major disruption to the supply of oil was the Libyan uprising against Gaddafi. In 2012, it is Iran.
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YÖK is a lost cause
Güven Sak, PhD
04 October 2013
YÖK is a body of political tutelage and has nothing to do with higher education, established to expand the rule of martial law to the universities. Lately, I have been thinking that we have been seeing issues from the wrong angle. At the old street fairs, pickpockets would distract people by saying things like “hey, look at that acrobat: he's about to fall down!” and then would pick your wallet. Just like that, decoys are being used to distract us. It is, however, better to look after your wallet in the crowd.
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