Roubini Post: The War of the Think Tanks

This post already appeared in the Hurriyet Daily News this week; Europe Economonitor is just republishing it, but I just wanted to cross-link for the readers who might have missed it the first time around...

There is also a blog version, which elaborates a bit on the misunderstanding of the TEPAV note, which was later more clearly explained in a column by TEPAV director Guven Sak  (in Turkish).

Speaking of TEPAV, there is an important disclaimer I should have made before, but totally forgot: I was Director of Economic Studies at TEPAV from June 2005 to October 2006. And I know Umit Ozlale, one of the authors of the TEPAV report, even before my Ankara days; in fact, we attempted to write a paper on ethnicity and growth once.

 

You might say that's not a minor detail to forget, but it did not even occur to me that it should be an issue until this morning. And as anyone who knows a bit of my Ankara days, or at least the end of my Ankara days, would confirm, I am more or less the last person who would unfairly favor TEPAV. That's all I have to say about that, as Forrest Gump would say, but in any case, I try to be 100% objective in my econ. analysis. Speaking of that, you might also have noticed my commendation, in the column, of the government's efforts to diversify Turkey's exports to MENA. So maybe those who accuse me of unfairly criticizing the government and scaring foreign investors away will stop and think for a minute before throwing baseless accusations around.