What has Florida to do with the U.S. embargo against Cuba?

Shelves are too large for what they offer in Cuba.

In my recent article 50 years of U.S. embargo against Cuba I tried to give some information about the history of Cuba and how the U.S. embargo came about. I did not however go in too much details regarding the question as to why the embargo is still in place and what does this say about democracy or rather the lack of it. This is the purpose of the following essay.

First we need to take a look at Cuban immigration to the U.S. in terms of numbers and preferred locations. Second, we need to enquire shortly into the U.S. electoral system and its peculiarities. Third, conclusion.

What’s that spread?

The ‘spread’ has become something of a synonym of Europe’s debt crisis. There is barely a news program that does not mention it. It usually means disaster when it goes up and plain sailing when it goes down. But is that true? What is it anyway? And does it have any significance for our everyday life?

Elections – Europe is looking to France once again

On April 22 France will hold the first round of its presidential elections. Since the first voting is unlikely to provide any of the running candidates with an absolute majority there will be a ‘shoot-out’ between the 2 leading contenders on May 06. Polls suggest that François Hollande of the Socialist Party is leading the sitting President Nicolas Sarkozy by a slender margin. The race to the Elysée is far from over. All depends on who is making it into the second and decisive round and who attracts more votes of people who had previously backed unsuccessful candidates.

USA – Payday for Apple’s shareholders

Apple announced the other day that it will pay a dividend to its shareholders. It could have been a company communication like millions of others, but it wasn’t. There is only one Apple, a hugely successful company that hasn’t paid out a single nickel for 16 years. It is understood that the cash pile has risen to about 100 billion dollar (the GDP of Ireland stood at 180 billion in 2011). 45 billion dollar will be made available for payment over 3 years. I have 2 questions regarding this announcement, the first is economical, the second rather ethical.

Italy – Labour reforms need to tackle youth unemployment

I recently came across an interesting article with the title Dangermen – Labour reform in Italy which laid out the many challenges the new Italian prime minister Mario Monti has to face. One of the most pressing problems is the unacceptable high unemployment rate among young people (15-24 years old) which is above 30 percent in Italy with Portugal, Spain and Greece performing evenly badly or worst (see link for graph). He is pushing for reforms to make the labour market more flexible and to encourage companies to take on new employees. This won’t be easy. He is up against all sorts of interests that benefit from the status quo and therefore seek to preserve it.