Currencies out of Whack

Osmel Almaguer

In the 80’s it was common to find one-cent coins scattered on the ground. They simply weren’t useful. The cheapest things cost five cents, and prices were grouped in increments of five cents (5¢, 10¢, 25¢ and so on).

However, back in the 1950s the situation was completely different.  Un centavo (a penny) could be a source of dispute between two people. With a penny you could at least buy a piece of candy, so these coins were not commonly found lying on the ground.

Today, not only have pennies become useless, but neither are pesos (about $.04 USD) enough to buy a similar piece of candy that was had for a penny in the past.  The Cuban peso has become a sort of penny for the CUC, the form of hard currency used here.

For a long time there has been talk of unifying the two currencies. I don’t think this will happen soon. To be honest—though it may seem like a radical thought—I do not think this will ever be done.

How would such an operation be carried out?  Would the Cuban peso be given a new value? Would they eliminate that old currency to leave the hard currency CUC to govern our economy? Would the old peso remain as the only currency, with its current low value?  How much would they then pay the average worker?

Many questions come to me and make me think about this change as something as incomprehensible in my mind as the notion of infinity.

I think that whatever happens, the current money-wage-price relationship is absurd and we need a change.  Otherwise things will never add up and the situation will continue to get worse.