Posted on 02/26/2026 4:39:51 AM PST by Cronos
Cuba’s economy is on the verge of collapsing. True, the standard of living has deteriorated under communism—most notably after the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the subsidies it provided to the regime, which meant that Cuba’s GDP shrank by half during the 1990s. But this time, the crisis may be worse.
It is hard to collect trustworthy data on the country, as Communist authorities routinely hide or manipulate statistics to conceal the true extent of the country’s crisis from the rest of the world. The regime says the economy declined by 5 percent last year, with an accumulated loss of 15 percent of GDP over the past five years. According to credible experts and observers, however, Cuba is likely facing the worst crisis since at least the start of the Cuban Revolution. Official inflation stood at 14 percent in 2025, but according to private estimates, it may have been as high as 70 percent.
...Daily life for Cubans is just as nightmarish. Recent videos filmed by locals depict an almost empty Havana, as the country’s capital can no longer afford to keep public transportation running.
...The decline of Cuba’s economy is producing mass emigration, even more than in the past. A recent study suggests that up to 1.7 million Cubans fled the country between 2020 and 2024. That study placed the 2024 population of Cuba at 8 million people. For comparison, the 2021 US Census estimated the number of foreign-born Cubans living in the US to be 1.3 million.
...Cuba could run out of fuel reserves by the end of March. It seems unlikely that the regime can just hold on.
(Excerpt) Read more at cato.org ...
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If the Cuban economy is in fact functioning now, how can you possibly tell if it is collapsed?
Trump has done the humanitarian thing that needed doing:
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article314835809.html
I guess it won’t help with public transportarion, but at least they can gas up their ‘47 Chevys.
Cuba, Venezuela, and Argentina are three countries which have had a bunch of Ups and Downs over many decades. It all depends on how much socialism they have at the moment.
The young princelings of the Cuban regime are in quiet discussions with US representatives about how to transition from communism. Otherwise, they face economic collapse and a likely revolt that puts their lives at risk.
We’re putting the squeeze on them.
We still enthusiastically enforce a 60 year old embargo against Cuba for being communist. Why do we allow communism to practically flourish in this country?
Cuba has a very interesting history.
You mean Cuber’s economy didn’t improve after Ubama “normalized” relations with Cuber? Intersting.
I’d love to see a big outdoor celebratory concert there with the Miami Sound Machine. Unfortunately Gloria Estefan has put on the weight and isn’t so hot anymore.
As a kid living on Long Island in the 50’a and early 60’s, many of my neighbors regularly vacationed in Cuba.
It's been collapsed since the early 60's. Who writes this crap?
Thanks. It was a nice place to vacation in that era. I’ve been to Jamaica once and Dominican Republic several times. They have some great all-inclusive accommodations.
Revolutions rarely improve things because they almost always degenerate into dictatorships. Castro, Pappa Doc, Kim, Maduro, the list goes on. It’s so bad in South Africa, they are asking the (Dutch) farmers to come back and run the farms they were evicted from. It seems that Karma eventually replaces the dictator sitting on the throne.
I, personally, have come to the conclusion that America’s embargo of Cuba is really our little deal with the rest of the world. If America traded with Cuba, it would take everything that Cuba had - no cigars for Canada or the UK.
The Communism is an excuse. America trades with China, after all.
Not to discount the effects of communism on Cuba, but at least one hurricane has made land fall on Cuba since the year 2020.
It is hard for a small country to recover when it is getting devastated continually.
God is punishing Cuba for its governments pride and war on him.
Cuba needs to turn its face to God and repent.
God is punishing Cuba for its governments pride and war on him.
My theory is they are being punished for turning away the MS St. Louis in 1939.
Are they all fleeing or is the Cuban government sending them our (permitting them to leave) so that they can earn money and send it back to Cuba.
You can bet that many (maybe most) of these Cuban refugees have family in Cuba be held hostage to ensure that they send money back.
My parents, from Montclair NJ and Grosse Pointe MI respectively, met on a beach in Havana immediately after the end of WWII.
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