The headline news this morning is the plunge of the Turkish lira following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s shock decision to oust the country’s central bank chief. The currency fell as much as 15 per cent before recovering some of the losses. The decision to fire Naci Agbal, who had sought to restore the central bank’s credibility, raises concerns that the country will again prematurely ease interest rates on the direction of President Erdogan. The Turkish equity market is down close to 10 per cent as of this writing. Despite weaker moves in other emerging market currencies, this is attributed to a stronger dollar, and not to contagion effects, as this is seen as a power play by Erdogan and is Turkey specific. The dollar has been rising on optimism that the US economy will re-open sooner than expected, as new virus cases has fallen below the 40,000 level for the first time in in a week, as cases are flattening as the vaccine rate increases. Furthermore late-stage US trials show AstraZeneca’s vaccine is safe and 79 per cent effective with no concerns over serious blood-clotting issues currently highlighted in Europe. The benchmark UST 10 year yield has indeed been trending...