Page 8 - TURKRptDec22

November 8: Midterm elections in the US. The Democrats were expected to lose their majority in Congress.
However, the Republicans didn’t deliver, they failed to win over enough of the electorate. Currently, the Democrats have secured 50 seats in the 100-seat Senate. On December 6, a run-off election in Georgia for the final available Senate seat will be held.
If the Republicans win the Georgia seat, they will have 50 seats like the Democrats, but the Democrats will have the casting vote of vice president Kamala Harris, who also heads the Senate, to secure a one-seat majority.
Such a tiny majority, as shown during the last Senate term, is not comfortable for the Biden administration.
In the House of Representatives, Republicans secured a majority with 218 seats. The Democrats were on 210 seats while vote counting was continuing for the last seven seats.
Prior to the mid-term polls, the expectations were that the US was starting to face the prospect of having a more powerful populist president (not Trump, but a Trump Mark II) in 2024.
However, in the representative democracy theatre, the polarised masses were given the choice of two rotten choices. Those wanting to keep the populist Republicans out (and it turned out that more of them were prepared to make the effort to vote than was expected) would have voted for an empty water bottle if it served the purpose.
As things stand, it is not possible to be certain what the outcome of the November 2024 presidential election will be.
In any case, amid interlocking crises, social tensions and wars across much of the globe are ahead.
● Erdogan’s monetary policy remains totally out of control.
On November 3, official CPI inflation for October was released at 86%
y/y, the highest figure recorded since the 91% posted in June 1998. At 86%, Turkey stays in sixth place in the global inflation league.
In February 2022, Turkey’s official producer price (PPI) inflation, entered three-digit territory for the first time since March 1995, when it posted 144% y/y.
Sep: 152%. Oct: 158%, historical record.
The ENAG research group annual inflation figure declined from 186% y/y for September to 185% y/y in October.
8 TURKEY Country Report December 2022 www.intellinews.com