Suffice to say that, no joke, in (I think) 2002 when the 10bn lira note was introduced (quote from the Central Bank Governor at the time "It's not exactly a proud moment having your name on a note with ten zeros on it, but needs must"), there was a small but serious atempt by some members of the Turkish Parliament to get Ataturk's face removed from the notes, as they felt that it was sullying his memory. (In the UK, we had the opposite issue; until the 1950s, the Bank of England refused to put images of the Royal Family on banknotes, as they felt that the popularity of the royals was far too transient and risky to risk tarnishing their own brand with).
And I speak as someone who does have a couple of lira-denominated instruments (IIRC, the equity shares of Turkiye Is Bankasi) in my retirement fund. Turkey is a classic example of the neo-liberal orthodoxy not working. In the last ten years I have been asked to produce "disaster scenarios" for the eventuality of a Turkish economic collapse on no fewer than three occasions. It hasn't happened yet. I personally don't think that it will. The secret to the Turkish economy's astounding ability to muddle through, IMO, is that the banks are, for the most part, owned by powerful industrial groups which are themselves profitable. This means that 1) the banks can be recapitalised by the families which own them, which is intrinisically more stable than having their ownership dispersed and 2) the economy as a whole is nothing like as exposed to fluctuations in the market's views of the Turkish economy, as the source of working capital for the commanding heights of the Turkish economy is a banking system largely controlled by its main customers. Turkey is in the process of bringing in "Western style" corporate governance, and as soon as I think they are about to achieve it I will run a mile. best, dd -----Original Message----- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Devine, James Sent: 26 June 2004 01:03 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Marxist Financial Advice I won't ask how much 20 million Turkish Liras are worth.... but I'm going to diversify by putting my assets into gin _and_ tonic or scotch _and_ soda. jd --
