Planet Money Dark times for Cuba’s economic experiment
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Apr 2, 2026 
Ricardo Torres, a Cuban economist at American University with firsthand experience living in Cuba, explains how the island balanced socialism with small doses of capitalism. The conversation traces Soviet and Venezuelan lifelines, the rise and fragility of tourism, widening inequality, and how oil shortages and blackouts have pushed daily life into crisis.
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Blackouts Now Dictate Everyday Life In Cuba
- Cubans described daily life shaped by blackouts, fuel shortages, and collapsing transport and communications.
- Erika Beras heard people cooking at 2 a.m. when power returned, while Yasser González Cabrera said his mother now goes to bed at 7 when the sun sets.
Soviet Support Propped Up Cuba's Communist Model
- Cuba's first survival strategy was total dependence on socialist allies while keeping a fully state-run economy.
- Soviet subsidies let Cuba fund ration books, free healthcare, and schooling, but the 1991 Soviet collapse exposed how fragile that model was.
Cuba Opened Markets Without Letting Go Of Control
- After the Soviet collapse, Cuba allowed limited self-employment without surrendering state control over real business decisions.
- Private firms could exist, but the state still constrained hiring, prices, and production, so the shift was more survival tactic than free-market reform.