Notes1 What are American national interests in Cuba? At first, the answer seems obvious. For fifty years, America’s leaders have called for a democratic and prosperous Cuba. Today, our leaders still use those words, even as the reality is and has long been much more complex. For several decades we worried about Cuba’s alliance with […]
The Post Fidel Transition: Mitigating the Inevitable Disaster
Notes1 Eventually the economic regime in Cuba will fall. It will have to wait until Fidel Castro leaves the scene, but then the economic regime, and most likely the political regime, will fall quickly. The world, and especially the United States, must be ready for that time. It is the contention of this paper that […]
Comments and Observations on the U.S. International Trade Commission Report
Notes1 I congratulate Jonathan Coleman and the other authors of this study. This work is must reading for anyone interested in the Cuban economy. It convincingly estimates the economic impact of the economic embargo on the U.S. and Cuban trade. It also provides a useful history of the embargo, considerable information on the development of […]
Measures Not Taken: Issues for Today and Tomorrow
Notes1 Several months ago I was writing a paper on the Cuban economy and mentioned that fortunately for the transition, the Cuban economy was relatively simple. I acknowledged the measures the Cuban Government had already taken and noted that much more needed to be accomplished. But I thought that further reform could be fairly straight […]
The State of the Cuban Economy 1998–1999
Notes1 Following its collapse after the pullout of Soviet assistance at the end of the 1980s, the Cuban economy began to make a respectable recovery in the mid- 1990s. That recovery was due largely to a restructuring of the economy which allowed for foreign investment, legalized a limited amount of private economic activity including the […]