Currency 'analysis' and Kabata? lies

I finally graced the pages of pro-government ?newspaper? Sabah on March 7 for my March 6 column, joining other respected Turkish and foreign journalists and columnists they also accused of treason and being an enemy of Turkey. I am only angry it didn?t come any sooner.

The Sabah article was unsigned. Its author claimed that I was targeting the complexity of the economic data I was basing my arguments on. It must be frustrating to have to cover the Turkish economy without much knowledge of economics, but if (s)he had contacted me, I would have gladly gone over my graphs. To make sure (s)he got it this time, I did not feature any data in my March 9 column.

The economics columnist of their English-language ?newspaper? Daily Sabah, on the other hand, seems to (more or less) have understood my graphs. He featured me, albeit without giving my name, in his March 9 column. Without addressing any of my arguments on why the Turkish Lira?s weakness against the dollar could spell disaster for Turkey, he simply made some claims on the exchange rate, which were unfortunately inaccurate.

It would be unfair to correct my ex-students, especially those I have failed to teach economics.
However, others, including some in the government, have also claimed that the lira?s weakness is because of the dollar?s strength, especially against the euro. They support their argument by noting that the lira has actually done well against the Euro Area?s currency.

At first look, these arguments may seem convincing. After all, the dollar index, which is the weighted average of a bunch of currencies against the dollar, is at its highest level since September 2003. But what proponents of this view fail to mention is that the lira has been the second...