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Business/Finance See other Business/Finance Articles Title: Que Significa "Hormageddon" Viva Cuba! "My idea, as the whole world knows, is that the capitalist system now doesn't work either for the United States or the world, driving it from crisis to crisis, which are each time more serious." -- Fidel Castro by Peter Coyne Dear Reader, Did we forget anything? Passport [ ✓ ] Toilet paper [ ✓ ] Alarm clock [ ✓ ] Old Man and the Sea [ ✓ ] On second thought… we'll leave the clock. TripAdvisor says trust theirs "at risk of missing your flight or train." But our trip coordinator emailed me saying that "Cuban flights rarely leave on time" anyway. Christopher Columbus was reported to look upon Cuba and say, "It's the fairest island human eyes have yet beheld." We'll confirm or deny that for you next Friday when we head to Havana for a week. The University of North Carolina is hosting an educational trip there. Paul Mampilly, our investment director, wrangled his and my way into the group. How could we pass it up? Hormegeddon -- disaster by central planning -- slammed the nation long ago. It still hasn't recovered. "I find capitalism repugnant," Fidel Castro spewed. "It is filthy, it is gross, it is alienating... because it causes war, hypocrisy and competition." Seeing how capitalism -- pure, laissez faire capitalism -- has never been tried before, we wonder why Fidel's got a bee in his beard. Has there been some tragic misunderstanding since 1959? No doubt Cubans, if left to their own devices, would, like anyone else, be better off than if their every move was dictated to them. “Hormegeddon -- disaster by central planning -- slammed the nation long ago.” "Cuba had a great study that they did," Bill Bonner told us when we spoke two weeks ago, "not intentionally, by the way -- but Cuba ran out of money in the 1990s because the sugar prices fell and the Soviet Union fell apart. So the average calorie intake was cut in half or something like that, and they didn't have any medicines. They were really in bad shape. "And guess what happened? The average health went up! Diabetes practically disappeared. Heart attacks disappeared. They didn't have gasoline, so they were all walking and riding bicycles. They had -- and still have -- a life expectancy which is about the same as that of the United States of America, even though in America, we spend, like, a hundred times more on health care." Today, there's a private sector in Cuba, but it's awkward and stunted. Like a 3-inch tree… or Peter Dinklage. Rules dictate everything. You can be a music teacher in the private sector, but not a math teacher. Your private-sector band can play music from the '40s and '50s, but you need to be a state-owned band to play teenage pop. Even then, it's safe to assume Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" is off-limits. We'll write you from the scene. If we leave having met new friends over cigars and mojitos at Hemingway's favorite bar… with a sack full of Cuban paintings and a copy of the communist mouthpiece newspaper, Granma, the experience would be worth it. Seeing hormesis in action is just icing on the cake. Hasta luego, Peter The Daily Reckoning P.S. "Central planning has a long, long history," says Bill, "and it's a sad history." Click the clip below to watch him explain why. After you do, scroll down further for our five recommended site posts... Click link to watch video. click.dailyreckoning.com/...MvZ3VjanN4c3gwNw./AQ/xDgO Poster Comment: I bought a Made in China "Baby Ben" alarm clock and the guts stripped out of it. I had to throw it in the trash. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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