We've been hearing for decades that the end to the US trade embargo will solve all of Cuba's economic problems.
Since Cuba has had the entire rest of the world to trade with, the leftist excuse that it's the big, bad United States' fault that their economy sucks has always struck me as ... self-serving, adolescent crap.
Which leads to my concern. The lousy economy is not and never has been the fault of the US; it's their own, for following a deranged economic system. If we were to lift Helms-Burton, and absent a dramatic shift to rule of law and a market based economy, I can't convince myself that there will be any significant change. The Cubans, however, will be expecting huge changes.
Then what?
(Incidentally, given the current craze for ethanol based fuels, Cuba could easily be a major producer. Why aren't they already?)
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