The FINANCIAL -- There are clear expectations in many cultures to marry somebody from theirown group, and not living up to these expectations will at least cause a loss in reputation. This is nicely displayed in the movie Late Marriage by Dover Kosashvili, humorously depicting a young Georgian Jew in Israel whose parents want him to marry the “right” woman (the movie features extensive dialogues in Judeao-Georgian, another endangered language). 

The FINANCIAL -- The Estonian-Georgian film, Tangerines, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2014. While the film was shot in Guria, the story takes place in Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia during the war in the early 1990s.

Since the mid 30s of 20th century, pollsters from all over the world have been asking people about the most pressing issues that their respective societies are facing. In most instances, economic issues top the list. This is especially true for the countries of the former Soviet Union, where unemployment, inflation, low pay, inadequate social benefits and the like have been enduring issues that governments struggle to address.

The FINANCIAL -- The bouts of sharp lari depreciation in the recent months caused much anxiety among the population, prompting fears of inflation, loan defaults, bank failures, and the typical Georgian political speculations over “who is to blame”. 

The FINANCIAL -- Bubbles belong to the most fascinating phenomena in a market. Suddenly, people are willing to pay prices which are completely out of touch with the fundamental economic values of assets. In the stock market bubble of the 1920s, persons who had never before considered to become investors borrowed money and bought shares, so as not to miss out on the chance to become rich. Euphoria grew and grew, until even housewives, dock workers, and cleaning personnel had no other topic to talk about but the news from the stock markets. All this went on until in 1929 the bubble burst, triggering off the infamous World Economic Crisis.