When I saw that Spengler, aka David P. Goldman, had written about Turkey this morning, I knew I was in for important but rarely discussed aspects of that country’s situation.  In his piece for Asia Times, Goldman calls Turkey “the sick man of Europe, once again.” Two of the drivers of the modern world are demography and finance, and Goldman is expert in both.  He notes that Turkey built up a debt bubble, financing consumption with debt, and is now reaping the consequences. According to the Turkish central bank, consumer debt is now almost equal to total personal income in Turkey, vs. a bit over 20% in the United States. The average interest rate on consumer debt, the central bank reports, is just under 17%. Turks are getting squeezed. They are also failing to reproduce, like so many nations in the modern world.  But for Turkey, this situation is even worse than for Italy, Japan, and many others: The Kurds of...(Read Full Post)