[Myrddin]

Meanwhile, with Turkey having missed the boat, the Turkish Lira exchange rate has slipped to 1,666,666 Turkish lira to the US Dollar.

For reference, I exchanged 8,068 Turkish lira to the dollar on my NATO trip in November 1992. A year later, I was scheduled to go again and the rate was around 12,000 Turkish lira to the US dollar. That trip was called off. Turkish currency has really taken a fall in 10 years.

[thinktwice]

I was in Instanbul in the middle 50s, and the exchange rate then was such that the U.S. Dollar was like ... gold.

One critical economic combination that is absent in such countries is individual freedom in the context of an individual's right to own real property, to use that property for one's own benefit, and the presence of a justice system that guarantee's those property rights.