International Winter Workshop Series on Global Financial Crisis: Myths and Reality
Tbilisi, Georgia, January 24-27, February 2, 18 2009

International Winter Workshop Series on Global Financial Crisis: Myths and Reality was successfully organized by Free University. The Workshop focused on unfolding financial crisis through the lens of macro, regulatory and financial economics.

The International Winter Workshop series was sponsored by Knowledge Fund, a non-profit organization supporting education and science. The Workshop was organized in cooperation with the Georgian Financial Supervisory Agency. Information coverage was provided by GeorgiaToday and Georgian Business Consulting (GBC). Two participants of the Workshop were financed by GTZ.

Faculty of the Winter Workshop:

January 24-27

	Thorsten Beck - Chairman of the European Banking Center and the professor of Economics and at the Tilburg University (the Netherlands), author of Financial Sector Assessments and policy notes for more than twenty developing countries of the world See short biography
	Simeon Djankov -  Creator of the "Doing Business" series, chief economist of the Finance and Private Sector Vice-Presidency in the World Bank, Co-founder of Ideas42, Harvard University   See short biography
	George Selgin - BB&T Professor of Free Market Thought at West Virginia University and professor of economics at University of Georgia, active proponent of the Free Banking See short biography

The working Language of the Workshop was English.   

February 2

Laura D'Andrea Tyson - Vice Chairman of Chartwell Education Group, economic adviser to the President-elect Barack Obama, the first female Dean of London Business School, chairman of National Economic Council in the Administration of the President Bill Clinton  Lecture topic: Ways to Address the Financial Crisis: the U.S. Policy See short biography

February 18

Michael Beenstock - Professor of Economics at International School of Economics in Tbilisi (ISET) and Hebrew University of Jerusalem   Lecture topic: The Theory of Financial Regulation See short biography

Required Readings: Oliver Hart and Luigi Zingales - Economists Have Abandoned Principle, Joshua Rauh and Luigi Zingales - Bankruptcy to save GM, Luigi Zingales - Causes and Effects of the Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy, Chicago Business School, a Faculty Panel on “What Effects Will be and What Should be Done”, Ken Rogoff - Inflation is Now the Lesser Evil, World Bank - Global Economic Prospects.

Outcome: The format of the workshop encouraged creative thinking, equipped participants with the skills necessary to analyse financial and macroeconomic trends. Participants had an excellent opportunity to engage in intensive discussions with the visiting faculty, to network and to build contacts for the future. Participants of the International Winter Workshop were awarded certificates.  

Location: The new building of Free University, located on Nutsubidze street (on Nutsubidze plateau), Tbilisi, Georgia.

Admissions: Free University created the blog which allowed everyone to initiate debate on any aspect of the Global Financial Crisis interesting to them, pose questions and receive answers, express their opinion on articles posted by others. 

Contact Information
For further information and assistance, please contact:

Free University of Tbilisi
Economics Program
Nona Karalashvili
Tel.: (+995 32) 51 94 81
Mob.: (+995 99) 537 257
karalashvili@freeuni.edu.ge