A really belated response to a reader

A reader who goes by the name Tarik has apparently asked the following question to my article on the Central Bank of Turkey nearly two months ago:

You proposed fiscal policies against capital inflows.What fiscal measures can be taken against capital inflows? Many economists started getting worried about hot money(Faik ozatay e.t.c). Another thing,What do you think of the employment figures?there was a significant drop in unemployment figures. hasan ersel wrote about it in a statistical view. faik ozatay points out that there was a sharp increase in employment in agricultural sector.I think that he finds it a little bit puzzling. Thanks

As I explained in a rather belated response, Daily News does not automatically update authors on reader comments, so I have no way of knowing of new comments unless I look at the article. While I check for comments the next few days after I publish an article, I do not usually return to an article after that. I accidentally saw Tarik's question when I was rereading that piece to, believe it or not, see what I had written:) Am getting senile or not?:)

Anyway, I plan to write on unemployment soon, and so will address that question in a separate Daily News column, but let me take on the fiscal question: I have in mind tighter fiscal policy, especially on the expenditures side. Why? IMHO, the best way to fight capital flows would be to attain fast and sustainable disinflation to reduce nominal interest rates and eliminate the interest rate differential (to some degree, at least) with developed countries. And the key is that you'd need to do this fast; otherwise, hot money will continue flowing in. The best way of attaining that would be via fiscal policy...

My apologies for Tarik for the very late response, but as they say, better late than never, right:)....