The things they can not fudge are the salaries they paid since we can go around and ask a few Cubans and take an statistical sample and compute it and they can not lie about the rate of exchange between peso and dollar.

The GDP per capita that is a quantity that can be estimated they themself because of their normal fudging with number may not probably know themself the actual numbers. We could still figure something out seen the standard of living in Cuba and comparing with similar countries.

The actual GDP per Capita if we follow the calculations above in my post should be about 233 dollars. That will place Cubans at the bottom of the list of GDP per Capita in the world just above the Palestinian and the Gaza Strip. (Notice those are war zone places)

If you look at pictures of Cuba Many of them look like from a war zone. So it does match our expectations!

It seems to me their own government have being at war with their own citizens. I believe this is an unintended consequence of their policy of trying to control everything in Cuba.

I visited your blog I will also be reading your post!

One example: It is repeatedly reported in the world press (and sometimes in the United States) that the Cubans have maintained a low infant mortality rating. It is then repeated (and reprinted) that the Cubans even beat the United States in infant mortality.

Now, in the 60′s-80′s it is true that the Cubans did make progress in overall health care numbers – but in the 90′s everything changed.

Now the statistics the Cubans quote today are “true”, but it is true according to the methodology the Cubans use against the methodology the Americans use. For example, the Cubans will routinely “not count” a baby born who is less than 9 pounds (not the internationally recognized number). In order to get that weight, they will drain the urine or remove fluid from the lungs (this is not ‘standard UN statistical procedure’).

But since the issue of infant mortality has such a large political consequence, the doctors know what to do, even if it means giving the nurse the nod to move the weight scale or just write down a number that works (because infants born below a certain weight are considered to premature to be counted in the statistic).

So, according to these Cuban Communist Party methods – health care the prenatal care in Cuba is in fact, fantastic. If you want to use the same methodology that is used in the rest of the ‘world’, a number of authorities (Cuban) put infant mortality at double the US rate. The same with HIV.

So, in regards to money, when the smoke clears, the purchasing power of the Cuban peso (which has been destroyed) stands in direct relationship to the productivity of the state controlled enterprises whose costs are denominated in that currency.

Which means (long story short), a band of rabid monkeys hooked on ecstacy has a better chance of running a banana stand at a profit than the CCP.

Anyways, its a longer conversation I am sure – I’ll look forward to any of your posts on Cuba.