Cuba-US trade stuff revisited

US-Cuba Trade.

It's a great article. Sorry if my attempts at linking you directly to the article don't work. It's still a very good article. Please read it.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/

Thanks, Goldilocks. It's a good piece but only a few points are new ones.

<blockquote>Quote
<hr> Much of the population in the Communist nation is mired in poverty. With a per capita gross domestic product of only $3,900, most Cubans can't afford pricey foreign products.

"The potential for trade with the U.S. can't increase unless Cuba reforms its economy," said Carmelo Mesa-Lago, a longtime Cuban scholar and professor emeritus of economics at the University of Pittsburgh. "They need exports in order to pay for imports."<hr></blockquote>

These are the most telling points. Trying to get an accurate picture of Cuban GDP or per capita income is the hardest one. The regime's figures are SO distorted that no-one believes them, not even the UN. The $3900 guesstimate is probably as good as anyone's. Even in a Cuba's controlled economy the delta between an average wage of $300 and the PCI noted requires a lot of 'splainin. It's not consumed by sub-standard health care and universal but marginal schooling.

The point most worthy of absorbing is that Cuba's economy consumes a lot but produces little beyond tourism and nickel. You can't buy much unless you have more / better income to do so with.