Cuba Modifies Rules on Currency Import/Export
HAVANA TIMES, March 20 — The Central Bank of Cuba changed the rules governing the import and export of hard currency in whatever monetary units, as well as Cuban pesos (CUPs) and Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUCs), the Prensa Latina news agency reported on Monday.
Under the new regulations, individuals will be able to import hard currency into the country without restrictions or charges; however, they will be able to leave the island with only up to $5,000 (USD) or the equivalent in whatever currency without charges being imposed.
Cubans residents in the country and permanent resident aliens may export and import amounts not exceeding 2,000 CUPs, but they are prohibited from exporting CUCs, which is the currency considered as having real purchasing power on the island today.
The changes took effect on March17 through Central Bank resolutions published in the Gaceta Oficial.
Grady
Nothing has “gone wrong”. the system is functioning and politically as designed . The sad truth about socialism is it only works for those that have political power. the rest of the population is having the property that is created from the efforts of their labor seized by those with political power and distributed to their cronies.
The manner by which money is created goes the heart of how a truly socialist economic system ought to run. How the Cuban Central Bank does this therefore has enormous bearing on the workability, or non-workability of Cuban socialism. Could someone out there in cyberspace tell me, and all HT readers, how it’s done in Cuba?
The true basis of money, of course, is the future productive power of human beings. That is, if I have employment through which I can work in the coming years, a financial institution like a bank can create monetary credit based on my future productive ability. This seemingly-out-of-thin-air, magic money can be loaned to me as credit debt. The money supply thereby is enhanced, and good and services can be better exchanged.
Under capitalism, this debt is to a blood-sucking private bank, which pretends that the money loaned is private property from the bank’s vault. I not only have to pay back the loaned principle, but also massive interest, as though I were renting the bank’s property. This interest of course is completely unjust, because I’m actually borrowing newly-created credit based on my own future productive ability.
Socialism was supposed to change this interest blood-sucking way of creating money, in order that time-based interest charges would be unnecessary. Loaned credit money would be newly-generated for a one-time only generation- and repayment-monitoring fee. But something seems to have gone wrong in Cuba, and there apparently is an enormous problem with credit and money creation.
Is there someone out there who can help clarify what has gone wrong?