Today we are going to continue telling a little bit of the history and economy of Cuba, you know that it is from a different perspective. Yesterday I told you about how my parents supported us with very low salaries, and then in a business they earned in two days what a specialist doctor earns in 1 month of work. The question is how we got to that point. Here it goes.

Until 1990 Cuba depended on the communists of Europe, mainly the Soviet Union and the organization Council for Mutual Economic Aid (CAME), it was like a dumping ground for the productions of the European communists and there Cuba took its productions and bought the garbage, of course for a very low price and with ridiculous credits, of course in Cuba there were Russian military bases, so the business was done.

By 1989, things changed. The Russians and other European communist countries began to make reforms, the CAME disappeared, and Cuba was left without economic options. Until then, the dollar was penalized; if you had dollars, you were arrested. Then, the dollar was decriminalized around 1990, and those who were in prison and lost their dollars, no apologies.

But the CUC emerged, a currency that began to accompany the CUP, the currency with which workers were paid, and after having a devaluation of 120 CUP for each CUC, it stabilized at 25 CUP for each CUC. On the other hand, family remittances began to be accepted in a more open manner, especially from the United States, the country that supposedly has Cuba under blockade. Remittances were sent by people who were once scoundrels, counterrevolutionaries, etc., and now they became families in exile.

At this point, the stores where people bought with CUC had all the products, and the CUP stores had fewer and fewer every day, and some disappeared. The salary then had a purchasing power 25 times smaller. In addition, there was another phenomenon: for companies, 1 CUC was equivalent to 1 CUP, for individuals, 1 CUC was equivalent to 25 CUP, which caused price distortion. A person did a job for a company and was paid 10,000 CUC, for the company it was 10,000 CUP, but the person had 250,000 CUP, people stopped working for state entities, they earned more privately. The money machine was in operation, salaries began to rise, but so did prices, a race that more or less stopped around 2018, another Cuban economic genius was approaching. AS AN ASIDE HERE, THERE ARE SEVERAL ECONOMIC SCHOOLS, AMONG THEM I HAVE HEARD ABOUT THE CHICAGO AND THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL, IN THE FIRST THE CONCEPT IS FOR THE REGULATION OF BANKS AND GOVERNMENTS; THE SECOND PLACES THE INDIVIDUAL AT THE CENTER; THE CUBAN ECONOMIC SCHOOL PUTS INTO PRACTICE ALL THE LAWS OF STUPIDITY FOR ITS IMPLEMENTATION.

COVID brought a stop to the changes, economic worsening, what they could never sell was sold, well, madness; but the best was yet to come. The ECONOMIC REORDERING is decided, the speech that preceded it was a correction of the exchange distortion; what I explained before about an exchange rate for companies and one for natural citizens, at that point everyone would have the same exchange rate 25 CUP for each MLC, wait it's not a mistake, it is decided that there would no longer be two currencies, the CUC disappears, the CUC was in the form of bills, now it is replaced by the FREELY CONVERTIBLE CURRENCY (MLC) backed by US dollars deposited in the bank or other currencies at their reference value, same dog with a different collar, they no longer had to spend money on printing, now a magnetic card, less cost for printing, greater control of people's money, now they know what you earn and what you spend. But since everyone would have to pay 25 CUP for each MLC, the production costs of companies rise, the way to fix the issue is to raise salaries, minimum wages rose from 148 CUP to 2100 CUP, about 14 times, the price of a pizza increased from 5 CUP to 150 CUP, 30 times; and so on. A bank account of 200k CUP with 7% annual interest, generated 14K CUP, which was enough for 1 year of decent living, now 14K CUP barely lasts 1 month with difficulty, that was the result of the ECONOMIC DISORDER. And there are no longer 2 types of exchange rates, now there are 3 types of exchange rates: 1 MLC=25 CUP (official, only companies see it); 1MLC=120 CUP (adjusted and to have access you must be in a queue for more than 1 year); 1 MLC = 260 to 280 CUP (the one on the street, the only one you have access to). They are no longer 2 currencies, now they are 3 or 4: CUP, MLC, USD, EURO, MEXICAN PESO, CANADIAN DOLLAR.

It is in this economic context that Cubans move around in Cuba. That is the fundamental reason for migration and then enterprising Cubans start looking for cryptocurrencies and the scams begin.

I will start telling you that part tomorrow