[Zhang Fei]

Juicing economic growth via devaluation can work for a while. But eventually that runs out of steam. A decade ago, the lira was roughly at parity with the dollar:

[Zhang Fei]

But even before Erdogan the Turkish lira had depreciated by orders of magnitude over 50 years, such that 6 zeroes needed to be taken off at the end of that period. Erdogan came to power because his predecessors were even worse economic managers. We talk about our political choices being between bad and worse. In Turkey, their choices are between unthinkable and "I don't want to talk about it".

First Turkish lira (1923–2005)

Both Livre Turque (in French) and تورك لیراسی (in Ottoman Turkish) phrases used on first-issue banknotes.

Historical banknotes from the second, third and fourth issues have portraits of İsmet İnönü on the obverse side. This change was done according to the 12 January 1926 issue of the official gazette[4][5] and canceled by the Democrat Party after World War II.

After periods of the lira pegged to the British pound and the French franc, a peg of 2.8 Turkish lira = 1 U.S. dollar was adopted in 1946 and maintained until 1960, when the currency was devalued to 9 Turkish lira = 1 dollar. From 1970, a series of hard, then soft pegs to the dollar operated as the value of the Turkish lira began to fall.

1966 – 1 U.S. dollar = 9 Turkish lira

1980 – 1 U.S. dollar = 90 Turkish lira

1988 – 1 U.S. dollar = 1,300 Turkish lira

1995 – 1 U.S. dollar = 45,000 Turkish lira

2001 – 1 U.S. dollar = 1,650,000 Turkish lira

The Guinness Book of Records ranked the Turkish lira as the world's least valuable currency in 1995 and 1996, and again from 1999 to 2004. The Turkish lira had slid in value so far that one original gold lira coin could be sold for 154,400,000 Turkish lira before the 2005 revaluation.

Second Turkish lira (2005–present)

In December 2003, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey passed a law that allowed for redenomination by the removal of six zeros from the Turkish lira, and the creation of a new currency. It was introduced on 1 January 2005, replacing the previous Turkish lira (which remained valid in circulation until the end of 2005) at a rate of 1 second Turkish lira (ISO 4217 code "TRY") = 1,000,000 first Turkish lira (ISO 4217 code "TRL"). With the revaluation of the Turkish lira, the Romanian leu (also revalued in July 2005) briefly became the world's least valued currency unit. At the same time, the Government introduced two new banknotes called TRY100 and TRY50.

In the transition period between January 2005 and December 2008, the second Turkish lira was officially called Yeni Türk Lirası (New Turkish lira).[6] It was officially abbreviated "YTL" and subdivided into 100 new kuruş (yeni kuruş). Starting in January 2009, the "new" marking was removed from the second Turkish lira, its official name becoming just "Turkish lira" again, abbreviated "TL". All obverse sides of current banknotes have portraits of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Until 2016, the same held for the reverse sides of all current coins, but in 2016 one-lira coins were issued to commemorate the "martyrs and veterans" of the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, the reverse sides of some of which depict hands holding up a Turkish flag while others show in stylized form a collection of five-pointed stars topped by a Turkish flag.[7]

[Texas Fossil]

That decade coincides with the ObamaNation. Beginning in 2009. Coincidence? I doubt it.

It also coincides with Erdogan the Islamist’s rise to power.