World News

I'm sure we're not very far from Erdogan blaming a minority and maybe stirring up a small war.

There's a manual somewhere; "Despotism for Dummies" I think.

Isn't Greece pushing a 6 day work week though? It's certainly significantly better than Turkey's but having to push that does not make it seem great.

Just anecdotally, but Hungarian prices went way up above the inflation that the exchange rates changing would justify. There are a few explanations why it happened in Hungary.

• One is prices are getting "unanchored" and are easier to gouge. Someone used to a loaf of bread costing 400 in local currency will buy one loaf for 1200 as easily as 800. It's basically nobody knows by habit what the prices are any more.

• One other explanation goes that the uncertainties of the economy get baked in to the price. So if the bread was made for 200, but is now made for 400, the trader will price based on the assumption the input prices might double again, pushing the risk to the customer.

• Yet another explanation is that since prices went up, fewer people buy the same goods, so prices must go up again to have businesses stay afloat. So basically there is an inverse economies of scale effect happening.

• Finally, in these countries it happens very frequently that parallel economies emerge, and societal divides widen. Point is, there is a group of people who get paid by foreign companies in foreign currency, and they earn much better than most that have been affected by inflation, and more and more of the economy is targeting them exclusively.

IDK really, as on the one hand I'm not an economist, only pointing it out that this is not the only place and time this happened.

Inflation is not the only thing that goes into currency valuation. Future expectation also comes into play. Basically the situation is expected to get worse

Those are the social media rage bait prices. Lots of places have prices 1/3 or less

Edit: That's not to say it's cheap, but there are cheaper (and still great!) options than the quoted amount

Edit 2: If you're downvoting, please also tell me how $128 meals and $6 ice cream are in any way the norm.

She'll be waiting for you in Istambul.

Dates and figs and almonds

DEUS VULT you to go for that date

850TRY is currently about $26 USD, or about $.03 to a lira. Holy crap, I was there about 10 years ago and a lira was about $.50!

average monthly wages (2900-3200)

I'm not sure where you found this but it's severely outdated. Average wages were around 10000₺ in 2022 (probably mean) and the minimum wage has trpiled since then.

And I'm not sure what kind of a meal the 850₺ number is for, but it's definitely not what you pay for an ordinary meal outside. In Ankara usual prices are between 500₺ and 150₺. Prices do balloon when you go to touristy places or places that serve hard drinks tho.

The regime there decided to devalue the currency through several policies.

Why Turkey's currency is crashing after Erdogan got reelected | AP News

The impact of exchange rates on Turkish imports and exports - ScienceDirect

Does inflation increase export? Case study Turkey

Turkey’s economy is paying the price for years of policy mistakes

One goal of such policies is to turn the country's economy toward exports, such as the model used by many "developing countries" to manufacture cheaply (for shit wages) and export a lot. As you can imagine, that's not compatible with a consumer economy (i.e. a nice service sector). When you devalue your currency (or just have inflation unintentionally), you make imports more expensive. For many countries, one of the biggest drivers is energy imports. Hungary is finding that out now too. If you need a harsher example, read about Lebanon in recent years (as if the threat of Israel invading isn't enough).