Macroeconomics In Cuba

Cuba’s colorful history can be documented to before the days of the American Revolution in 1776, but today, American policy directly affects many Cubans’ lifestyles because of a nearly 45-year-old trade embargo that has been placed on the island nation. It is crucial to analyze the development of Cuba and its neighboring island nations in order to discern the reasons for Cuba’s current political situation with the United States. The following paper will discuss the events that shaped Cuba and larger Caribbean nations like Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica; next, a detailed description of Cuba’s turbulent history will help in explaining the Cuban transformation into a

“Poverty in Cuba, Welfare in a Broke Country.” Poverties. February 2012. Web. 16 April 2016. .

The government owns everything, the factories, mines , banks, large businesses, and mostly all small businesses. They also own a good 70 percent of the farms in Cuba. The communists in Cuba stopped around 1959 and they fixed to make drastic changes in the economy. Cuban’s wanted to stop all sugar dependence on the United States. They would’n’t ever have an one-crop economy. Also its trade would no longer be directed by the Strong country to the north. Communist leaders turned Cuba’s resources to a huge plan for creating factories and machinery. They had a plan that they wanted it to happen overnight to change it from an agricultural to industrial country, but the plan did not work. They didn't’t have enough money to pay for all the factories and buy all the materials.

Cuba and the United States of America have completely opposite economies. Cuba’s economy is based on the few natural resources that the country owns while the economic system in The United States is capitalist and can be recognized for its noticeable development in agriculture, energy, and other resources that keep the country expanding and provides jobs as well as a good quality of life for its residents. On the other hand, Cuba’s economy, is predominantly poor, to the point where a very huge percent of its population suffers from

Cuba’s early history is characterized by colonization, agricultural capitalism, the introduction of African slave labor, and a class system that divided the island (Mintz, 1971). Beginning in the 1800’s the Catholic Church ideology saturated Cuban society, which was the standard of Spanish-speaking Latin America at that time. Education at this time was an opportunity experienced by elite, white, males and centered on rigid Catholic tenets of philosophy. The base economy was agriculture, and African slaves

Many of these factors had either been introduced or improved by Castro and just the idea of having a country that is third world having these factors so long ago is an indication of how beneficial Fidel Castro was to Cuba. The extent to which the US — a superpower — felt threatened by a third world country like Cuba is also an indication of how beneficial Fidel Castro was to Cuba. This source further explains how under Castro there were food shortages, increased rationing and growing scarcities. The introduction of sanctions under Castro’s rule is said to have been damaging because the source these sanctions upset and disadvantaged the middle-class and therefore were a social disadvantage. This source also explores how the suspension of US exports under Castro was damaging as these badly affected people like retail merchants, manufacturers and industrialists and many of them found it difficult to remain in Cuba. Therefore, this particular policy under Fidel Castro proved to be both socially and economically

Adjustments have been since then so that independent businesses in Cuba may trade with the United States, resulting in, “the United States [becoming] Cuba’s fifth largest trading partner since 2007,” (Lee and Renwick 5). Even though Obama came into office in 2008, and a year later reversed more of the restrictions set forth in the Helms-Burton Act, the actual lift of the embargo and Helms-Burton seems to not be as close as the media makes it seem. Since Raul Castro has come into office, also in 2008, he has claimed he would work towards normalizing relations with the United States, and further stated that he would leave office in 2018. Castro leaving office marks the end of the period the Castros have been in power, and leaves question to how the state of Cuba could potentially thrive. In my opinion, after reading many articles that bought forward the many problems Cuba is to overcome, I feel that Cuba has a long way to go in terms of achieving economic prosperity. However, I also deeply believe that the leaders of both Cuba and the United States are paving the roads needed to reach that level of prosperity. Journalists who have visited Cuba have come back claiming, “private businesses have blossomed due to the relaxation of limits of remittances from Cuban Americans to the island,” (O’Neil 2). This statement, and others like it, leaves me to feel

As shown in Figure 45, Cuba maintains diplomatic relations with a wide variety of countries throughout the world. However, the elusive country still remains the United States. As tensions seem to cool and economic sanctions are lifted, it will be interesting to see the effect that this has on Cuba and the United States’ role within the Cuban Economy2. As far as taxes are concerned, they make up a very small portion of Cuba’s revenue. Introduced in the mid-1990s to curb private businesses’ profits, taxes have not been as effective in raising revenue as the Cuban government originally hoped. In the future, the Cuban government is looking toward altering the tax structure in order to make it a more consistent revenue stream in the future27. As overarching as this sounds, the influence of the Cuban government does not stop there. Cuban government also plays an extremely active role in limiting the civil liberties of its citizens. Since January 2015, when Cuba and the United States reestablished ties, the Cuban government has gotten a tad more lax on their imposition on the lives of its

During my trip to Cuba, I have noticed that the island is experiencing economic reforms that are enabling its citizens to own property and conduct free enterprise. Cuba market socialist economy is a viable economic system that is not dead but alive and well by incorporating elements of the free market in political and social agendas that enable free enterprise to flourish. These economic reforms have been taken place due to inability from the Castro regime to maintain relevant solutions to the island economic problems and dependency on government. The introduction of market socialism (liberal socialism) as a logic, the economic policy appears to be working for the Cuban government. Liberal socialism policies were enacted as a response to American

The Special Period of 1989 in Cuba was a devastating economic period due to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Cuba received many goods important for their daily lives that made the country efficient and functional, now they had to adapt to the shortage of imports. Soviet Russia was a huge benefactor to many communist countries at the time and once they collapsed, left these places, including Cuba, in shambles. The economy was in crisis as they lost approximately one-third of their imports of food, petroleum, etc. Cuba had to adjust to the change, and they needed to adjust quickly. Cuba was in shock and frantically searching for ways to keep up the strength of their society. People began questioning and brainstorming new economic paths to make

economic growth comes from agriculture and exports to and from Europe. Since America has had an embargo on Cuba since 1962 neither countries trade with each other because of many disagreements about governing techniques and Fidel's unwillingness to comply with U.S. instructions. Cuba’s long history and culture has contributed to many economic and social growth through out the world, but Cuba is still struggling to try to stable their economy.

Had Cuba not undergone a radical revolution in 1959, Perez-Stable argues that the economy would have gradually become less dependent on sugar, although it would still be greatly dependent on the United States. She writes that "the transformation of monoculture appeared to be a matter of time" (33), believing that industries such as tourism, cattle-raising, winter vegetables, petroleum, and mass media had potential for growth in a non-revolutionary setting. In order for these new industries to prosper, however, military dictatorships would most likely continue, according to Perez-Stable’s conjecturing. For capitalism to survive in Cuba, the government would remain unstable, with leaders like Bastista serving as puppets to U.S. interests.

During his rule as prime minister and president, Fidel Castro’s impacted the Cuban economy significantly. An analysis will first be made of his positive impact on Cuba’s economy. Castro’s positive economic impact can be traced back to 1959 when he first came into power as Prime Minister of Cuba following the approximately seven-year rule of dictator Fulgencio Batista. During Batista’s rule and even far long before it, Cuba had long had relations with the US. Under Fulgencio Batista, however, these relations were particularly strong and during this time period, Cuba saw great amounts of corruption.

succeeded by Raúl Castro. Even though the country is filled with rich natural resources, the economy and the people were struggling to survive. When Fidel Castro, the “maximum leader” of the island, casually confessed that “The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us any more,” it showed that the economy was in serious trouble. Although it was obvious that the near­total state control of the economy was no longer working, for the leaders, the Castro brothers, to admit this was a huge step. Many analyzed that this meant changes and reforms were coming to the Cuban system.

Secondly, Cubaneeds to repair its corrupt, failing state-run economy. The reality of thisstruggling economy is that Cuba’s resources are plenty, and its