From our Bureau of Great Socialist Success Stories with some assistance from our Bureau of Interviews One Does Not Expect To Find in Leftist European Newspapers
Spain’s leftist newspaper El Pais has published an interview with exiled Cuban economist Carmelo Mesa-Lago in which he describes and analyzes all of the major economic blunders made by Castro, Inc. in the past 65 years. While the interview is lengthy, it provides a succinct introduction to the absolute insanity that has turned Cuba into hell on earth. Could the publishing of this interview by a leftist newspaper be seen as a warning directed at Spanish and European investors? Does it scream out “don’t expect to profit by doing business with Castro, Inc.?” Perhaps. If so, it could mean that the plug is about to be pulled on Castro, Inc.’s European life support system.
From El Pais, English edition
On the verge of turning 90, as he publishes what appears to be his last book, renowned Cuban economist Carmelo Mesa-Lago has promised his wife Elena and his two daughters that he will stop writing. He has made that promise before but was not able to keep it. “I stopped writing for a month and I thought I was going crazy,” he says from his apartment in Pittsburgh, a city where he loves everything except winter, and where he is an emeritus professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
In 1961, at the age of 23, he left Cuba for Spain. He then settled in the United States. Mesa-Lago, a lover of cinema and travel, is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Social Security, the Latin American Academy of Sciences (ACAL), a professor at several universities around the world, and the author of dozens of books. He has also witnessed all the historical, economic and social events in Cuba since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution until today.
Question. What do you consider to have been Cuba’s worst and best moments, economically speaking?
Answer. The worst time is now. There are some ways in which the crisis of the 1990s was worse, but, overall, this crisis has surpassed it. And the best moment was in the 1980s, particularly in the first half, when the Soviet Union (USSR) was subsidizing the Cuban economy. I have calculated that the USSR gave Cuba $65 billion between 1960 and 1990. Of that aid, two-thirds were price subsidies. The USSR paid the country seven times the world market price of sugar. It bought nickel at 50% above the world market price, and sold oil below the established price. It was a huge transfer of resources, and when the USSR fell the blow was brutal.
Q. What differentiates this crisis from others? Why do you say that this one is worse?
A. I have several reasons why I say that this crisis is worse: the first is that the crisis of the 1990s was preceded by a period that was the best. Cuba was at a much higher level than the one preceding this crisis. I have calculated Cuba’s average growth or decrease between 2019 and 2023, using government figures, and as an annual average it fell by almost 2%.
The second reason is related to what we call the gross rate of capital accumulation. In 1989, the rate fell 25% and the last year for which we have figures it was 16%. The industrial production index is also important. The drop in 2022 was 54%, meaning industrial production in 2022 was less than half of what it was in 1989. Regarding agriculture, I have calculated that between 2016 and 2022, there was an annual drop of agricultural production of 7.3%. In the 1990s, it didn’t go down like that.
And I think the worst of all is inflation, there is no comparison to it. If you look at all the years of that crisis, the worst were 1992 and 1993. Now, according to government figures, we are talking about inflation of almost 1000% in the year 2022. All the estimates made by foreign economists place inflation at three digits, 700%, 500%, so it is the worst inflation there has ever been. Outside of Venezuela, the worst inflation in Latin America is in Cuba, and it is among the highest in the world.
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There should be no need for this by now. Everyone knows Cuba is a catastrophe, unless they don’t want to know or refuse to see it. Apart from a small minority of truly stupid people (and true stupidity is a mental disorder) and the odd true believer, there is practically no valid excuse left for not getting it.