“The monetary system of a people reflects everything that the nation wants, does, suffers, is.” Joseph Schumpeter It's astonishing how a country with a record debt to IMF at a moment in time, quite recent, not a century ago, can become the seventh economy in the world, with the prospect to overtake Britain by becoming the sixth largest economy in the world in 2012. Now, I read in various economy magazines that the established civilized world may be afraid of the exotic emergence of four countries, kept until very recently in the great financiers' leash. These four are India, China, Turkey and Brazil. I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit all four of them, in different periods of time and even live there for a significant period. I have experienced the explosion of Turkish economy, observing the discordance between inside predictions and foreign press reports. I think the same is the case with Brazil, a country where not long ago it was easy to die on the streets for various reasons. Usually burned, beaten, shot, crushed. If one affirms that in Turkey a street policeman is as corrupt as in Brazil, the Turks will be very highly offended. There is a very popular TV series now there, called Arka Sokaklar, meaning Back Streets, about some intervention civil … [Read more...]