Turkey

The market is limping in to Thanksgiving like Kenny Easterday with a broken wrist thanks to the European Union being on shakier ground than Gabourey Sidibe on a tight rope, North Korea dropping bombs on South Korea after South Korea's TSA apparently tried to touch Kim Jong-ils junk, and the Fed...

Just another P-H-D clown called Turkey in the Fed...

There are permabulls, and then there is Jim O'Neill. The Man U fan explains why, after it has been consistently discredited, people do not believe in decoupling: "because they are not prepared to get it." And just because people are really stupid and just don't get it, O'Neill pitches Indonesia, Turkey, Nigeria and Bangladesh, and, oh yes, Iran, as the "Next 11" once again. Because, gasp, 9 of them are up year to date. We wonder if Jim recalls what happened to the Russian market in 2008. Somehow we think his selective memory may have shut that one out. Also, it turns out Jim O'Neill does not appreciate fan mail bourne out of "weird blog site" commentary: "I received quite a few incoming hostile emails in response, and references to some weird blog sites who apparently opine on my views." Oops.

Ever since the Gaza flotilla incident, in which several Turkish citizens were killed after a boat headed with supplies to the Palestine (with full politically correct details still being ironed out on who attacked whom and all that), was attacked, relations between Turkey and Israel have been horrendous, and deteriorating rapidly. Demonstrating just how seriously Israel is concerned with the Turkey (which also happens to be a NATO member, and in possession of lots of ultramodern things that go boom) relations hit, is today's first ever visit by Netanyahu to Athens, where he is scheduled to meet with Greek counterpart and country's opposition leader, to streamline Israel's relationship with Turkey's traditional antagonist, wisely driven by the principle of "the enemy of my enemy." (More on Netanyahu's historic visit via Haaretz). Yet where it is getting very dicey, is the just released report from the FT, which notes that "President Barack Obama has personally warned Turkey’s prime minister that unless Ankara shifts its position on Israel and Iran it stands little chance of obtaining the US weapons it wants to buy." And more: "One senior administration official said: “The president has said to Erdogan that some of the actions that Turkey has taken have caused questions to be raised on the Hill [Congress] . . . about whether we can have confidence in Turkey as an ally. That means that some of the requests Turkey has made of us, for example in providing some of the weaponry that it would like to fight the PKK, will be harder for us to move through Congress." It is unfortunate that the administration still believes intimidation is the best policy course when it comes to resolving latent (and soon to be bilaterally uranium-enriched) middle-east conflicts. Should this path of "negotiation" be insisted on, Obama may soon alienate a critical NATO-member and the country located at the most strategic location at the Europe-Middle East nexus. And this does not even account for the political unrest that is sure to develop should the country's 72 million disgruntled citizens decide the US (and its Middle East interests) are not their ally.

Turkey is among a handful of emerging nations on the cusp of joining the economic big league. How painful economic reform measures and banking controls can work. Foreign multinationals are pouring in. Suddenly, being shut out of the EC doesn’t look half bad. Does its flexing of new diplomatic muscle have a pronounced Islamic, anti American bent? (TUR), (TKC).

Some things I am thankful for this year: John Hussman, The Baseline Scenario, AIG, inept government regulators, and of course, Goldman Sachs. Absent these I would have nothing interesting to write about. So, without further ado, here are some interesting links for those of you who are not enticed by the Cowboys vs. Raiders game.

While we are eating the rest of the world goes on. "They" are going to be talking about us.

Now that's some aggressive rate cutting