For my economist followers out there: Read this from CNN, “Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to continue with his unorthodox policy of cutting interest rates to reduce sky-high inflation if he is re-elected on May 28. … ‘I have a thesis that interest rates and inflation, they are directly correlated. The lower the interest rates, the lower the inflation will be,’ Erdogan told CNN. ‘In this country, the inflation rate will come down along with the interest rates, so that we will come to a point where people will be relieved. I say this speaking as an economist. This is not an illusion.’”
Whaaaa? Erdogan is an economist? Really? Given his lack of understanding of basic monetary theory, I doubt it. So, let’s check the Wiki, shall we? From the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Wikipedia page under the education section, “According to his official biography, he subsequently studied Business Administration at the Aksaray School of Economics and Commercial Sciences (Turkish: Aksaray İktisat ve Ticaret Yüksekokulu), now known as Marmara University’s Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. According to the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the website of the presidency, he would have graduated in 1981 but Marmara University was established only in 1982. Several sources dispute that he graduated, since a graduation certificate has never been presented.” “Graduating” with a degree — I assume a Bachelor’s of some sort — from a school with “Economics” in the name does not — I repeat — does not make him an “economist.” Sorry, but I prefer my economists earn their title the old-fashioned way: Attianing a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics. And a Master’s in Economics does not make one an economist, either. I love how everyone takes a few economics classes and calls themselves an economist.