Carpe diem

Abstract

This chapter, the introduction to Practical Economics, discusses the challenge of fixing a broken country and describes the situation in Georgia in the early 2000s. The author, Georgia’s former prime minister, Nika Gilauri, explains why he believes that other countries can learn from the reforms he oversaw between 2004 and 2012. The chapter contains an overview of the impact of this largescale transformation in areas ranging from corruption and doing business to economic growth and energy supply, as well as a personal account of how Mr. Gilauri, a political novice at the time, became a member of the cabinet in 2004.