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Power goes out on entire island of Cuba, leaving 10 million people without electricity
(www.nbcnews.com)
this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2024
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The question is, with what currency? The Cuban dollar is not really worth anything outside Cuba, so they can only rely on exports to fund currency needed to buy imports.
This is true, but not due to a US embargo. I should think that the state has access to many different currencies. But, in the end, they have limited resources. Cigars, some Rum (though a lot of countries distil and export rum in the Caribbean). They used to export mercenaries and doctors but noone is buying now.
You don't think being explicitly barred access from what is essentially considered "the world currency" at this point wouldn't change their access? C'mon.
They're not barred from access. Just can't use US banks. There are many banks in the world.
The world is run by the USD. If you can't do business using USD, it is crippling.
Hate to tell you this, but most banks in the world deal in multiple currencies including USD.
Do you know what the Petrodollar is? Have you ever seen USD called "the World's Reserve Currency"? There are reasons for this. The majority of world commerce is done using USD.
As the article goes on to say, Russia's invastion of Ukraine, and BRICS attempt to move away from USD toward other currencies like the Yuan, is changing the landscape as we speak.
But since 1963, or whenever the fuck it started, the USD has dominated. The act of simply not allowing a nation to participate in that, for such a long time, does a lot of damage. I think Cuba has done pretty well for itself, all things considered.
Yeah, I know what a petrodollar is. Played the oil spot market years ago. So, I'm guesstting you must be indicating that Cuba can't pay for oil. That's nonsense. Let's suppose they have their money at HSBC, a Chinese bank in Hong Kong. They make a deal for oil supply with Mexico. To pay for it, they have HSBC move money from Hong Kong to Mexico in USD.
BTW, I find the downvotes funny as he'll.
They're allowed to play monopoly, they just can't use the regular monopoly money.
The global economy is run on the US dollar. It's the measuring stick all other currencies use as a reference point.
Again, world banks deal in multiple currencies.
And the US Dollar is the measuring stuck upon which all other currencies are based upon. I'd it takes all kinds of regulatory and embargo based nonsense for a bank to play ball with the US and Cuba, that bank won't do it.
I used to get paid in Euro with a release of funds directly to a foreign account. The account that bank was associated with was turned into USD upon entry. It's really not that hard.
That euro conversion stuff doesn't matter if the US won't deal with any bank that interacts with the Cuban currency. That's what an embargo does. You're right it's not hard to exchange currency. The entire point of an embargo is to function as a financial seige, to prevent the economy of the embargoed target from growing through mutual trade with the literal financial hegemon of our world.
You would think that the US can't choose who it does business with. Cuba's currency is near worthless.