In the course of writing this morning’s column, I spoke with a businessman familiar with the situation in Turkey.
Getting Turkey on solid economic footing, he said, will require spending reductions, meaning fewer of the infrastructure programs that so beguile Erdogan, programs he uses to enrich his friends.
“He loves his bridges,” says our man in Istanbul, “and this is going to mean less money for his contractor buddies.”
Erdogan, he says, is not much inclined to push for difficult reforms.
He ends by quoting Clubber Lang.
“Prediction? Pain.”
