Austrian Economics

If Only Fidel Castro Had Followed in His Father’s Footsteps

From November 8-16, my wife and I were planning our first trip to Cuba, along with 85 FreedomFest attendees. We wanted to see firsthand the impact of communism on the island. Then President Trump suddenly canceled U.S.-based cruises to Cuba. Now we are going on a “Mayan Mosaics” cruise to Mexico and Central America at a substantial discount. Please consider joining us. Details can be found here.

We are also doing a one-day conference in Miami on Friday, Nov. 8, on “The New Cuba” for investors. For more information, contact Valerie or Nathan at 1-855-850-3733, ext. 202.

I will be giving a talk on Latin America and why communism has been so attractive to revolutionaries like Cuba’s Fidel Castro. In preparation for this lecture, I am reading the new biography, “The Young Castro: The Making of a Revolutionary,” by Jonathan M. Hansen.

In reading his ground-breaking story, I learned that Fidel Castro’s father, Angel Castro, was a Spanish immigrant who came from a conservative peasant family and eventually became a wealthy entrepreneur and businessman in Cuba. He had over 400 employees on his finca in the mountains of central Cuba. He often took in poor Cubans who were searching for work during bad economic times such as the Great Depression.

Starting out poor and illiterate, he was determined to educate his children. Unfortunately, his son Fidel got the wrong education about capitalism. His teachers introduced him to the readings of Marx, Lenin and other socialist thinkers and he thus started on the road to communism and the overthrow of the Batista regime.

Exclusive Milton Friedman’s Blind Spot

Although Angel rightly resented the American exploitation of Cuba’s sugar industry, he was a staunch capitalist. When leaders tried to organize the workers at one of Angel’s stores, he made his views clear. As one worker put it, “Angel and Lina [his wife and Fidel’s mother] had no tolerance for communism.”

Angel died at the age of 80 in 1956. In 1958, Fidel and Raul Castro engaged in a coup d’etat of Batista’s Cuba and converted the entire nation to state-controlled communism. Angel must have been turning over in his grave.

Mark Skousen

Mark Skousen, Ph. D., is a professional economist, investment expert, university professor, and author of more than 25 books. He earned his Ph. D. in monetary economics at George Washington University in 1977. He has taught economics and finance at Columbia Business School, Columbia University, Grantham University, Barnard College, Mercy College, Rollins College, and is a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University. He also has been a consultant to IBM, Hutchinson Technology, and other Fortune 500 companies. Since 1980, Skousen has been editor in chief of Forecasts & Strategies, a popular award-winning investment newsletter. He also is editor of four trading services, Skousen TNT Trader, Skousen Five Star Trader, Skousen Low-Priced Stock Trader, and Skousen Fast Money Alert. He is a former analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, a columnist to Forbes magazine (1997-2001), and past president of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) in New York. He has written articles for The Wall Street Journal, Liberty, Reason, Human Events, the Daily Caller, Christian Science Monitor, and The Journal of Economic Perspectives. He has appeared on ABC News, CNBC Power Lunch, CNN, Fox News, and C-SPAN Book TV. In 2008-09, he was a regular contributor to Larry Kudlow & Co. on CNBC. His economic bestsellers include “Economics on Trial” (Irwin, 1991), “Puzzles and Paradoxes on Economics” (Edward Elgar, 1997), “The Making of Modern Economics” (M. E. Sharpe, 2001, 2009), “The Big Three in Economics” (M. E. Sharpe, 2007), “EconoPower” (Wiley, 2008), and “Economic Logic” (2000, 2010). In 2009, “The Making of Modern Economics” won the Choice Book Award for Outstanding Academic Title. His financial bestsellers include “The Complete Guide to Financial Privacy” (Simon & Schuster, 1983), “High Finance on a Low Budget” (Bantam, 1981), co-authored with his wife Jo Ann, “Scrooge Investing” (Little Brown, 1995; McGraw Hill, 1999), and “Investing in One Lesson” (Regnery, 2007). In honor of his work in economics, finance, and management, Grantham University renamed its business school “The Mark Skousen School of Business.” Dr. Skousen has lived in eight nations, and has traveled and lectured throughout the United States and 70 countries. He grew up in Portland, Ore. He and his wife, Jo Ann, and five children have lived in Washington, D.C.; Nassau, the Bahamas; London, England; Orlando, Fla.; and New York. For more information about Mark’s services, go to http://www.markskousen.com/