Language of Economy

On the agenda of the opposition, there is open talk, and on the agenda of the government, behind the scenes early elections (in fact, the constitutional definition of renewal of elections) is spoken. The agenda of the citizens is quite different because they carry the problems that politics cannot solve. The pot is now more difficult to boil, there is unemployment, the market is burning and politics has not found a solution yet. Therefore, the debates over the early elections do not attract the attention of the citizens.

I say not to paint a dark picture for you, but there is no way to hide the visible. I think the country is left with the biggest economic crisis in the history of the Republic. Namely; The reason for the crisis may be the negativities in the financial or real sector. Finding solutions to financial crises is easier. If the crisis is in the real sector, the process will be more difficult, but somehow you will come out of the crisis again. However, an economic crisis in both the financial and real sectors will have a heavy toll on the country. This is exactly what I'm talking about. For the first time, we are faced with a situation where all economic indicators are negative. There are contractions in both the financial sector and the real sector and we cannot define them. Think of it as the treatment of a disease that we have difficulty in describing. When the disease cannot be diagnosed, there are uncertainties about how the treatment will be.

It is also difficult to find a way to cope with a crisis that we cannot define. In a country where natural resources are limited, the foreign debts taken should be directed to production, but unfortunately the consumption economy model has dominated. It is a fact that we spend what we produce and the debts we borrow on imported consumer goods with a "wasteful" understanding. We can symbolize this with the waste of "mobile phones" or "two cars per house". The construction of roads, bridges and buildings is of course important and we can define them as infrastructure, but when all investments turn into investments in plazas and shopping centers, especially in big cities, the investments made are not smart investments with recovery.

It is a mistake to see the economic environment only as incentive packages, interest rate adjustments and swap movements. Monetary policies can go so far, but there is no final solution, structural measures are a must. By structural measures I mean; liberalization of the environment and its maturation for economic activities and investments. Economic prosperity and democracy are not alternatives but complementary to each other. In order to overcome the crisis, in addition to the implementation of principles such as the rule of law, independence of the judiciary, separation of powers (power), transparency of public accounts, independence of institutions such as the BRSA, Central Bank, producer-based incentives and sectoral (agriculture, livestock, defense, software, pharmaceutical) reforms. The issues should be implemented quickly.

I will not grapple with macroeconomic indicators and numbers to contribute to the diagnosis of the disease and to make the picture more understandable. There are simpler ways to understand what is felt. How Does?

I have a florist friend. She sells flowers over the counter in a central location. It's not a shop, it has a small counter. It opens in the morning and collects at night. He earns a living for his family with what he earns from here. He is a smart and intelligent friend, maybe not educated, but he has very sharp and accurate observations. Hundreds of people pass by every day. The wealthy, the poor, the students, the men, the women, the locals, the foreigners… He is not a tradesman who spends all day sitting at the counter, doing his job on the one hand, and watching his surroundings, measuring the pulse with his observations.

Every now and then, when we come across, we chat on foot. He also relays his observations to me. As they say, the language of the shopkeepers, my friend's statement is exactly this. He told me the economic situation with a very simple sentence the other day: Previously, I used to buy this flower for 20 TL and sell it for 30 TL, but now I can't sell it for 20 TL even if I buy it for 30 TL. I asked why like that; My expectation was that people said they don't have money to buy flowers, but he gave a different answer. He said, "People don't spend money on such things anymore, happy people buy flowers, people aren't very happy anymore." Without asking what the source of his determination was, Ben added that he understood it from their attitudes, looks and faces. He approached the event with a Kahnemanian analysis rather than a Keynesian point of view and summarized in one sentence what economists, columnists and politicians were trying to tell us with numbers, statistics, scientific analysis.

In fact, behind the determination of my florist friend stood a great truth. Flowers are not a basic commodity in the economy. It is a substitute product. People don't buy flowers out of necessity. A nervous, unhappy, troubled person can't see the flower anyway. The flower is bought to a spouse, friend, lover, fiancee, friend and is a sign of happiness and hope. It's about the future. It is a symbol of sustainable relationships. 20 TL on the way home in the evening. There is no need to give and buy a bouquet of flowers financially. It means that the spouse of a person who does not have a job, has financial difficulties, whose pot does not boil, who is worried about his future.

I can't even think about his friend. One out of every four young people is unemployed, they have concerns about their future. The table is getting darker day by day.

Economic prosperity may not be everything in a country, but it is the starting point of many things. The task of the politician is to create a political and economic climate in the country that will make all citizens happy. A minimum level of well-being and a sustainable daily life are the basic conditions of a country where happy people live. Can we say like this? We want a country where people are hopeful for the future and more flowers are sold.