NationStates Jolt Archive

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/041025/cuba_economy_11.html

What do you think?

Good, it's about time!

YAY for commies!

Meh, I don't care, I don't shop at that store anyways.

Ouch. Thats NOT going to be good for the people...

Good. I don't want their slimy commie hands handling our US greenbacks. To hell with that cesspool of an island. Cuban cigars are over rated anyway.

Good. I don't want their slimy commie hands handling our US greenbacks. To hell with that cesspool of an island. Cuban cigars are over rated anyway.

I don't my own hands to handle your slimy US greenbacks. To hell with your cesspool of a superpower. American money is over rated anyway.

Cuban cigars are over rated anyway.
Sure they are kiddie...

Sure they are kiddie...

Who are you calling kiddie? Hell, you hardly look like you're old enough to buy a beer. Dominican cigars are better. Try a Don Sebastian.

The US dollar has long been a tool for US economic control in the developing world, but due to the ongoing vindictive trade embargo on Cuba by the US, money sent to the island from the US has become an important part of its economy. Castro's action, though, is not unprovoked, self-destructive stupidity. It is a response to a recent action by the Bush administration, sharply reducing cash transfers and visits to Cubans by their relatives in the US. Bush was catering to his "base" again, this time older Cuban exiles who despise Castro so much they are willing to destroy Cuba just to destroy Castro. Younger Cuban immigrants, who still have strong ties to family and friends at home, are outraged -- and many are likely to vote for Kerry in this election.

In the meanwhile, Cubans in the US will have to find other ways to help their relatives -- perhaps sending Euros by way of Canada or Mexico.

I'm planning to move to Cuba now.
I was not sure about my next holiday destination, but now it will definately be Cuba. Every euro I will spend there will be more than worth it.
I hope I can see the buena vista social club.
Go Cuba.

I don't my own hands to handle your slimy US greenbacks. To hell with your cesspool of a superpower. American money is over rated anyway.

BAHAHAH!! :D YEAH!

Go Castro.. *plants huge kiss on Castro's beard* :p

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/041025/cuba_economy_11.html

What do you think?
Yay! Maybe they'll accept the Euro instead like Saddam wanted to ;)

I don't my own hands to handle your slimy US greenbacks. To hell with your cesspool of a superpower. American money is over rated anyway.
:rolleyes: Yeah, sure they are. THat's why everytime our money changes, millions around the world fear that the money the have hoarded will not be good anymore, and they rush out to exchange it. Go clean the latte off of your CHe shirt, sheep.

Wow...it took him 45 years to do that? That's what confuses me...Castro came to power in 1959, the U.S. has banned travel to Cuba for decades now, and just now Castro bans the dollar? Maybe he had a revelation when he fell the other day...

A message from God sent to him when he hit the ground perhaps?
€ > $ anyday. Woohoo Euros to Cuba. Woot :)

:rolleyes: Yeah, sure they are. THat's why everytime our money changes, millions around the world fear that the money the have hoarded will not be good anymore, and they rush out to exchange it. Go clean the latte off of your CHe shirt, sheep.

Don't forget to apply the rouge evenly above your collar, you backwater babboon.

Hey as long as I can get my Cuban Cigars I don't give a rats ass.

Don't forget to apply the rouge evenly above your collar, you backwater babboon.
Shhhhhh. You are exposing your intellect. But, hey, no one will ever know that you've had a lobotomy, if you wear a wig to hide to the scars and learn to control the slobbering

Wow...it took him 45 years to do that? That's what confuses me...Castro came to power in 1959, the U.S. has banned travel to Cuba for decades now, and just now Castro bans the dollar? Maybe he had a revelation when he fell the other day...
No, the dollar was replaced shortly after the Cuban revolution. Then it was banned. Then it was allowed again in the 90s to attract tourism and citizens were allowed to keep dollars that they could exchange at the official rate or go to the black market and get more pesos for your dollar.

Dollars could only be spent on "dollar stores". Not the ones where everything is $1, but the ones that accept foreign currency; mostly used by tourists and some citizens looking for nice things. Now these stores will only take a new currency, the convertible peso, that will be on par to the US dollar but you need to pay a 10% "tax" to convert your dollars to convertible pesos.

I think Fidel is looking to weaken the role of the dollar in the Cuban underground economy and, at the same time, get some currency for their reserves. Strange that other currencies won't be affected.

seems like a bad move to me. although perhaps not the collapse of the cuban economy.

its not MORE stupid than the US banning cuban americans from sending money to their relatives in cuba or telling banks they cant send dollars to cuba.

i expect it will end up with a black market economy paid in dollars.

i just wish we would stop our vendetta against cuba. we sure do hate it when the other guy WINS. we can forgive those who fight us and lose, but never those who fight us and win.

Shhhhhh. You are exposing your intellect. But, hey, no one will ever know that you've had a lobotomy, if you wear a wig to hide to the scars and learn to control the slobbering

Oh, I'm just devastated. Simply overwhelmed by your witty repartee, munkebrain. Now that everybody knows I'm lobotomized, I guess there's nothing more for me to do but sign myself up as a Republican voter. Oops, sorry about the drool.

Oh, I'm just devastated. Simply overwhelmed by your witty repartee, munkebrain. Now that everybody knows I'm lobotomized, I guess there's nothing more for me to do but sign myself up as a Republican voter. Oops, sorry about the drool.
Hey, and when you die, or get put in prison, or become a vegetable, you will become a democrat and vote.

In the meantime, If all you can do is insult,

http://www.europa.com/~john/cannon.jpg

Hey, and when you die, or get put in prison, or become a vegetable, you will become a democrat and vote.

In the meantime, If all you can do is insult,

http://www.europa.com/~john/cannon.jpg

Is this image meant to represent the size of your member?

I can't get to the article (due to the firewall at work... schools have really tough firewalls). If someone can copypaste the article for me, I'll check it between classes. Thanks.

Monday October 25, 11:11 pm ET
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer

Cuba Radically Changes Cash Transactions, Moves to Stop Trade in U.S. Dollars

HAVANA (AP) -- Moving to wean its communist economic system from the American greenback, Cuba says U.S. dollars will no longer be accepted at island businesses and stores in a dramatic change from how commercial transactions have been done here for more than a decade.

The resolution announced Monday by Cuba's Central Bank seemed aimed at finding new sources for foreign reserves and gaining more control over its own economy. The U.S. government recently stepped up efforts to prevent dollars from reaching the island as part of a strategy to undermine Fidel Castro's government.

Cuba's national currency, the peso, cannot be used with international partners.

"Beginning on November 8, the convertible peso will begin to circulate in substitution of the dollar throughout the national territory," Castro said in a written message read by his chief aide Carlos Valenciaga.

In his message, Castro asked Cubans to tell relatives living abroad to send them money in other foreign currencies, such as euros, British sterling or Swiss francs.

The move was likely to hurt mostly those Cubans who receive American dollars from relatives living in the United States.

Cubans and others on the island can still hold dollars in unlimited quantities and can change them into pesos before the new policy takes effect. But they will have to pay a 10 percent charge to exchange dollars afterward. There will be no such charge on changing other foreign currencies, such as euros, into convertible pesos.

"In the short term, there may be a slip in the remittances," said John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, which tracks business between the two countries. Some estimates on annual remittances to Cuba are as high as US$1 billion (euro780 million).

"But going into the holidays, people in Miami and New Jersey won't want the holidays for their families on the island to be even more miserable," he said, predicting remittances from those major Cuban American communities would pick up again, despite the difficulty of sending them and the 10 percent charge.

Kavulich said the timing of the announcement seemed aimed at drawing attention to Cuba shortly before the U.S. presidential election.

"The Cuban government is hoping that (U.S. Sen. John) Kerry will win and that by announcing this a week before the election it will keep Cuba in the news and relevant," said Kavulich.

He said that because Havana is blaming this new economic measure on the American sanctions, the debate over the U.S. trade embargo will be in the public eye when the elections occur.

Cuba also has been seeking to draw attention to the U.N. vote scheduled for Thursday on condemning America's trade embargo against the communist nation.

From an economic and a political standpoint, Kavulich said, the move makes sense.

"You don't want the currency of one country to be the currency of another country," he said. "Every country should have its own currency.

"The trick will be to force Cuban citizens to accept the Cuban convertible peso and be just as comfortable putting them in their mattress as their dollars," he said.

The U.S. dollar has been a primary form of currency in Cuba since the early 1990s, when the island government was forced to implement liberal reforms to cope with the loss of Soviet aid and trade. The possession of dollars was legalized in 1993 to draw hard currency from tourism and from family purchases at state stores.

The government said the change is necessary to protect its economy as the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush seeks to punish banks and businesses that ship American dollars to Cuba, which has been under a U.S. trade and financial embargo for more than 40 years.

Earlier Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced in Washington that it had identified an electronic money transfer business that it suspects is linked to Cuba and thus will not be allowed to do business in the United States.

It alleged that the company, Sercuba, allows people in the United States to send money to Cuban nationals via a third country or through Sercuba's Web site in violation of the U.S. embargo.

Other stepped up U.S. measures going into effect this summer aimed to reduce hard currency on the island by limiting how often Cuban-Americans can visit relatives, decreasing how much they can spend, and prohibiting money transfers to Cuban officials and Communist Party members.

Castro looked animated, despite the bright blue sling he sported over his olive green uniform to support a broken right arm. Castro has made a point of remaining involved in government affairs since accidentally falling Wednesday at a speech, also shattering his left kneecap.

The measure was tied to the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision in May to fine Switzerland's largest bank, UBS AG, US$100 million for allegedly sending American dollars to Cuba, Libya, Iran and the former Yugoslavia in violation of U.S. sanctions against those countries. UBS agreed to pay the fine without admitting the allegations.

The U.S. embargo was imposed in 1963 in the wake of Fidel Castro's defeat of the CIA-backed assault at the Bay of Pigs two years earlier. Americans are barred from traveling to the Caribbean island nation except with a U.S. government waiver.

Thanks, Gigatron.

Well, I voted, "Finally... stick it to the imperialists," but I do worry about the strained relationships with other nations right now. See, it seems to me that by keeping things hostile, we're really screwing with the folks who want to communicate with their families. I send money to my grandmother in Florida on a fairly regular basis. If she lived in, say, Cuba, and I wasn't able to do that all of a sudden, I'd be terribly upset. I support the decision on Cuban government because I feel it was a measure the current administration pushed them to. I do think they should be able to count on their own currency before any others.

Heh, the US bans Cuban cigars and Cuba bans the US Dollar.

where US send troops to kill people i send doctor to cure them


greeting from the free land of allers (gaf)

Finally.

Ouch. Thats NOT going to be good for the people...
People weren't legally allowed to have dollars already, sooo... it's not going to be good nor bad for most of the people.

It's a bad move on Castro's part. For one, Cuba was treated as a forbidden paradise by Americans, and we could get in through the Bahamas, Jamaica, etc. Anyhow, they tipped in dollars, and paid for everything in dollars, making Cuba's tourist industry better than the rest of the economy. Now that won't happen. American tourists will be disinterested in trying to reach there, and the next nearest group of travellers with a disposable income (Europe) is too far to go to Cuba in large numbers.