A Missed Anniversary

Although I have been accused of using media space essentially to further boost my already highly-inflated ego, I managed to miss a very important anniversary, at least someone who fits that description: My first article for the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review appeared on November 24, 2008, so it was my second-year anniversary on Wednesday.

That column is not available in the Hurriyet archives; for some reason, the earliest column there is from mid-December of the same year. But it is in my blog, if you are interested. I was surprised at the length of the paragraphs at those early columns. Good thing I learned to keep them short quite quickly...

Since my ego is sooooo inflated, it is only proper I do a best-of list to honor the occasion: I went through the columns, and here are my favorite, in chronological order, along with an explanation on why I think so:

1. Value of political links, a la Turca: I think I managed to tie academic research to the Dogan vcase quite well.
2. Of Mrs Tasimasu’s watermill and 007: Super-cheesy title. Plus the first time I mention the concept of temporary patches to the budget and knockoff fiscal policy, common themes in my columns.
3.  Twin deficits: A tale to end in tears: The actual writing of this column has a very personal story to it, which you can read in my blog.
4. Seven years in slump: This column was quoted in the IMF's Daily Press Briefing email- the first time I hit international.
5. Fool some sometimes you can: Other than paying homage to my favorite movie of 2009, the column was a very good call. It turns out I caught the government's IMF ploy very early on.
6. The Çarşı approach to monetary policy: Gotta love the title...
7. You don’t mess with the CBT and Capital punishment on the banks: My most challenging columns- I was trying to explain rather complicated topics.