The US Senate on Wednesday night voted decisively in favor of the rescue plan put forward after a six-hour debate and days of political wrangling which further depressed extremely nervous financial markets around the world. The US economic crisis even prompted Turkish commentators to put aside Turkey’s domestic political debates as they used their columns to analyze and comment on the crisis.Milliyet’s Sami Kohen, referencing prominent US economists, says a $700 billion bailout package may not be sufficient to save the US economy, noting that there is a consensus among Democrats and Republicans about the need for reforms to the US economic system. Kohen associates the current financial situation in the US with the Bush administration, whose relaxed economic policies made state intervention very unlikely. “The Bush administration, which has so far implemented a neo-liberal approach, is resorting to state intervention this time in order to save the economy,” says Kohen. Discussing whether this could be a sign of the adoption of a socialist approach for the future, Kohen thinks it is not the case because this is in a limited arena and for a limited period of time. “Just as one American analyst said, ‘If this is socialism, we should call it part-time socialism’,” remarks Kohen.
In the wake of the latest economic crisis, Yeni Şafak’s Fehmi Koru says the US bid to be the world’s foremost military and economic superpower has been dealt a severe blow. “Petty squabbling between the two parties in Washington has severely damaged the US’s superpower status. Delaying measures that should have been taken to prevent the current economic crisis not only made the cost of the crisis bigger but also shattered the perception that the US has a functional democracy,” comments Koru.
“This interaction between the banks and stock exchanges on Wall Street and the US Capitol will influence everyone: every country and every individual. Although the issue is a little bit complicated [because it is about economics], everyone is writing and commenting on it because it will influence everyone’s life,” says Radikal’s Cengiz Çandar. Looking at the reactions of different political segments in Turkey to the US financial crisis, he says the leftists are indifferent to what happens on Wall Street but call it the “collapse of capitalism” as though socialism did not collapse as a political system 20 years ago. As for the reaction of the center right, Çandar says they seem relaxed, thinking that Turkey acquired immunity to financial crises after its 2001 economic crisis. “I cannot understand how a country like Turkey, which is very much integrated into the global system in a global world, can remain indifferent to a financial crisis which is about explode on Wall Street and hit the entire world,” complains Çandar.
