I have snapped the picture above in one of Tbilisi’s main streets. To the economist’s eye, however, this picture should be disturbing. While the general observer will see clean and wide sidewalks, beautiful classical-style buildings, and a single pedestrian in this early hour of the day, one also sees two adjacent currency exchange booths (Lombardi, as they are called here).

An unprejudiced look at the Georgian economy is rather disenchanting. Starting in 1990 at a per capita income that was close to Poland’s, Georgia went into a free fall as a result of secession wars, loss of markets, an explosion of crime and corruption, and the staggering incompetency of its governments.

On March 4, 2013, Andrew Burns, Manager of Global Macroeconomics in the Development Prospects Group of the World Bank, presented a report – “Global Economic Prospects – Assuring Growth Over Medium Term”, for ISETers.

Consider yourself in Germany in 1923, entering a bar for drinking a beer. How much would you have had to pay for that? Well, the average price for a glass of beer in the autumn of 1923 was four billion Marks.

According to standard economic theory, labor is a good like any other, traded on the labor market. Like with all other markets, the price for labor, which is the wage, ensures that supply meets demand.