"Turks adjust to new currency
By Yigal Schleifer | Correspondent
ISTANBUL � They had months to prepare, and yet it still came as a shock: On New Year's Day, miillions of Turks lost millions. No one, mind you, is any poorer. Rather, Jan. 1 marked the debut of a new currency, a slimmed-down version of the Turkish lira that Turkey's government hopes will set the country on a path of international respect and economic stability.
Called the New Turkish Lira, or YTL, the currency chops the last six zeros off the old lira, bringing the exchange rate to the dollar, for example, from 1,300,000 lira to a more manageable 1.3 YTL. Gone now are the days when tourists became instant multimillionaires upon arrival, when rents would be paid in the billions, and the gross national product was a figure given as more than 400,000,000,000,000,000 - as in 400 quadrillion lira."
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