I’m running up on a long-term sleep deficit and haven’t had a moment to myself until now (but only a moment), but the conference on “Freedom, Commerce, and Peace: A Regional Agenda” is really going well. We have a much larger number of attendees than had at first been anticipated, the speakers and presentations are of a high order, the simultaneous translations (Georgian, Russian, English) have been going well, and the Georgian music and sword dancing at the dinner last night were a big hit for all of the foreign guests (from 28 different countries). The Prime Minister of Georgia, Zurab Noghaideli, spoke last night and gave a really interesting talk on the difficult process of getting the reform act together in Georgia, their recent successes in improving the rule of law and liberalizing markets and life in general.
Excellent news.
And precisely because of the difficulties, there could hardly be a better time for an event like this in Georgia.
Perhaps Dr. Palmer is too modest to link to it (or maybe he hasn’t gotten around to it), but here he is discussing the conference on one of Cato’s invaluable “daily podcasts.”
http://cato.org/dailypodcast/tomgpalmer_freedomcommerceandpeaceingeorgia_20061027.mp3