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Erdogan's Turkey Continues Its Economic Death Spiral And President Trump Just Tossed Him An Anvil
[RedState] Turkey, a member of NATO, a one-time candidate for EU membership, and a budding Islamist dictatorship, is on the verge of a full-bore meltdown of its financial market. The Turkish lira has been staggering toward crisis for several months as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan implement the much the same decisions that one would have expected if he’d used Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a financial advisor. Turkey had an unmanageable debt-to-GDP ratio, inflation was beginning to kick in, and Erdogan thinks raising interest rates to control inflation is the spawn of Satan. This is something they apparently teach instead of economics wherever it was that Erdogan and his lackeys went to school.

The proximate cause of the Ferrari-like acceleration of the current crisis into something that Erdogan may not be able to survive is pretty easy to understand. Erdogan blames a Turkish preacher, Fethullah Gulen, who lives in the US for a coup attempt against him in 2016. He has demanded extradition of this man and been rebuffed. To improve his bargaining position, Erdogan’s regime did what any Turkish whoremonger would have done, they arrested an American pastor, Andrew Brunson, and charged him with terrorism. Presumably, if we sent their pastor back, they will send ours home. At the NATO summit, Erdogan and Trump reached an agreement. Brunson would be sent home and Trump would prevail upon Israel to release a Turkish terrorist. Trump and Israel did their part. Erdogan reneged.

...Washington has generally tried to calm global markets in such moments, especially when investors are gripped by fear of contagion. Mr. Trump instead squeezed Ankara further, raising tariffs on Turkish steel imports to 50% and aluminum to 20%, which deepened the Turkish lira’s drop and worsened market fears that its banks could be shaken.

...Erdogan’s Turkey has virtually declared a cultural war on Europe both facilitating the flow of "refugees" from camps in Turkey into Europe and encouraging Turks in Europe to outbreed natives of their host countries. As late as the autumn of 2017, Erdogan and his henchmen were talking smack about how they didn’t give a f*** about a US alliance anyway

...Since the fall of the USSR and the rise of Erdogan, Turkey’s strategic position has become much less useful and its bad behavior much more of an issue. At present, having Turkey as an ally is presenting many more problems than opportunities.
And anyways, what NATO does nowadays except encouraging certain East European countries to poke sticks at the Bear?
...One has to suspect that sanctioning two Turkish thugs and increasing tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum is only the beginning of the process. The next weeks will see massive capital flight out of Turkey as people fearing both potential sanctions and economic collapse. Nothing the Turkish government is doing is building confidence. Erdogan’s call on Friday for Turks, in a show of patriotism, to sell gold and real currency in order to buy Turkish lira was seen more as a move born of desperation than a real strategy.
Recep goes full Alexandria?
...Odds are that Turkey experiences a fiscal meltdown. Between Erdogan’s fiscal policies, a lack of confidence in the ability of his government to do squat, and the fact that the US government isn’t going to help him out, it is hard to see how this doesn’t go full-metal Argentina before it is all over.
I expect Turkey to go to war

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2018-08-12
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=520547