The collapse of socialist regimes after 1989 reflects more bankruptcy than political change. The “old revolutionaries” and/or “counter-revolutionaries”— depending on the perspective— have been left unemployed. Before, a subversive agenda existed for “would be” destroyers or builders of “Ancient Regimes,” “Betrayed Revolutions,” and “Restorations.” Their prescriptions were very similar to the way Fidel Castro seized […]

Notes[ref]The views expressed here are those of the author and in no way represent the official views of the International Monetary Fund.[/ref] As the planet earth advances rapidly towards the twenty-first century, people are becoming more aware that the various problems affecting contemporary society cannot be solved exclusively at the national level. Increasingly the world […]

Sugar production in Cuba during the 20th century has never been curtailed by the installed industrial capacity. It is easy to increase the cane grinding rate on a short notice in such a manner as to process any expansion of the cane supply within the normal harvesting season. The communist government was fortunate the mills […]

The economic reforms that have been implemented in Cuba in recent years bear similarities to the structural adjustment programs of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB). Pressured by the economic crisis of the early 1990s, the Cuban government has moved toward deregulation of foreign investment and partial privatization of state enterprises […]

The collapse of the Soviet bloc severely jolted the remaining communist world. Two long-time Soviet allies, Vietnam and Cuba, suddenly found their chief benefactor, from which substantial assistance had consistently flowed, to have vanished. Consequently, their leaderships had to attend immediately to sorting though alternative policies that might bring about rapid economic growth while averting […]