Althouse: "US Corps Claim Billions In Assets In Cuba And Now They'll Want It Back."

December 22, 2014

"US Corps Claim Billions In Assets In Cuba And Now They'll Want It Back."

That's the way TPM puts it.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...: I wonder if the WH thought much more than 15 minutes ahead on its new Cuban policy. I suspect they didn't do much research...; 12/22/14, 7:45 AM
jr565 said...: Obama himself earlier said that the key phrase that should determine normalization wih Cuba is "libertad" and release of Polutical prisoners. From Byron York:

"Barack Obama has long believed United States Cuba policy should change; he so when he first ran for president in 2008. Back then, though, Sen. Obama stressed that the U.S. should hold Cuba to a number of stringent conditions before even beginning to normalize relations. The first of those conditions was freedom for Cuba’s political prisoners.

Obama laid out his proposal in a May 23, 2008 speech in Miami. Noting the “unanswered cries of the political prisoners heard from the jails of Havana,” Obama said his policy toward Cuba “will be guided by one word: libertad.”

“The road to freedom for all Cubans must begin with justice for Cuba’s political prisoners,” Obama said. The value of the U.S. embargo against Cuba, Obama went on to explain, is that it “provides us with the leverage to present the regime with a clear choice: If you take significant steps towards democracy, beginning with the freeing of all political prisoners, we will take steps to begin normalizing relations.”

Beginning with the freeing of all political prisoners. It was a pretty clear demand. Only after freedom was granted would Obama begin normalizing relations."

Rubio should simply play Obama stating our policy towards Cuba to show how misguided Obama is now. The
Fact is Obama as candidate was right. I see no reason to normalize relations absent a move towards that goal by the regime.; 12/22/14, 7:55 AM
jr565 said...: And yeah, the fact that Cuba owes all these corps billions needs to be addreesed doesn't it. Why normalize relations with a regime that owes out companies billions? Should we forgive the debt? And Cuba doesn't even have to pay it back? Or release prisoners? Or allow elections? Nothing?
Why are we rewarding this regime? Shouldn't we at least get assurances that these debts will be addressed? If Cuba Balks, then of course, so should we.; 12/22/14, 8:02 AM
Curious George said...: Dear Cuba Claimholders:

Good fucking luck. Stock up on Vaseline.

Signed:

GM Bondholders; 12/22/14, 8:04 AM
Unknown said...: Cuba only has $3.80 in the bank. Good luck; 12/22/14, 8:11 AM
pst314 said...: "Cuba only has $3.80 in the bank. Good luck"

How much could be raised by harvesting the organs of dedicated Communist Party members? :-); 12/22/14, 8:19 AM
rehajm said...: Ken Feinberg, call your office...; 12/22/14, 8:19 AM
tim maguire said...: I went to a Catholic elementary school in Miami in the mid-70's. Many (perhaps most) of my fellow students were the children of people who fled Castro. Their parents were waiting for him to fall so they could go back to their old homes and their old lives.

A lot of time has passed since then, but I expect any normalization process will have to deal with reparations demands that go far beyond the willingness or ability of any government to pay.; 12/22/14, 8:30 AM
Henry said...: tim maguire wrote A lot of time has passed since then, but I expect any normalization process will have to deal with reparations demands that go far beyond the willingness or ability of any government to pay.

I agree with this, though I think reparations will have to be minimal, or none. Consider the issue of the "right of return" as it impacts Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. After several generations of change, finding a fair disposition of land and fixed assets is extremely difficult.; 12/22/14, 9:28 AM
mccullough said...: Good luck with getting your property back or fair compensation for its seizure.; 12/22/14, 11:54 AM
SteveR said...: I can't think any past damages will be settled, but some assurances going forward to American investment is necessary. But this clearly was not well thought out on many levels beyond a typical Valerie Jarrett toss out to the uniformed and the fawning. These next two years will be a lot more of this.; 12/22/14, 12:36 PM
jr565 said...: Ebbers Palomino wrote:
Cuba only has $3.80 in the bank. Good luck

so how are they going to pay us when we lift the embargo? Does Rand also want us to offer them credit; 12/22/14, 1:02 PM
Mitch H. said...: Are there any accountants out there? How can any corporation maintain a dead claim on their books for over half a century without doing some sort of structured write-off in the interim? Those claims have been dead losses for longer than I've been alive. Governments and central banks can maintain that sort of fiscal long memory - ask the Germans about WWI reparation debts sometime - but corporations? They have to balance their books, and I can't imagine auditors tolerating books full of practically imaginary "assets" that have long since rotted to ruin under the blundering hands of the cactus fascists.; 12/22/14, 1:10 PM
Paco Wové said...: "so how are they going to pay us when we lift the embargo?"

I think it goes like this: we (or certain enormous banks) loan them millions of dollars. Then when Cuba defaults on the loans, U.S. taxpayers bail out the banks.; 12/22/14, 1:56 PM
jr565 said...: Paco Weave wrote:
I think it goes like this: we (or certain enormous banks) loan them millions of dollars. Then when Cuba defaults on the loans, U.S. taxpayers bail out the banks.

And Rand Paul, the conservative/libertarian is voting for this? It's like Obama propping up the housing market after it fails. At least there it's our houses. In Cuba its Castro's regime.; 12/22/14, 2:10 PM
JAORE said...: Dang it guys, why nix the idea that reparations are going to be collected? A certain guy might have found a niche in the new Cuban embassy as an expert on the issue.; 12/22/14, 2:28 PM
Sam L. said...: Fifteen minutes, Sarge? Methinks thou ate most overly generous! I would say, seconds.; 12/22/14, 2:39 PM
David said...: How about we get the Japanese to compensate their WWII prisoners and other victims first?; 12/22/14, 2:53 PM
jr565 said...: David wrote:
How about we get the Japanese to compensate their WWII prisoners and other victims first?

SO libertas is out, now paying back our companies is out. It's sounding better and better every day. If by better you mean worse.; 12/22/14, 3:17 PM
cubanbob said...: US corporations are owed the money that Castro stole from them. Whether or not there is a settlement is another story but the property was confiscated and just because US law allowed for a tax deduction (not a tax credit) doesn't change the fact the property was stolen. To the extent there was some compensation to US corporations by the US Government all that occurred was a creation of a debt owned to the US Government.

Obama is such an idiot. He is going to hurt Puerto Rico and the DR to help bail out Cuba with American tourism in return for nothing. America tourists are the gold standard, by and large they aren't cheap bastards like the Europeans and Canadians with their cheap all included packages and no tipping. That's why American tourists are so wanted, they like, they spend and they tip. That is what the Castro brothers need now as they realize Venezuela is about to fall off a cliff and soon wont be able to prop them up any further. No one extends open credit terms to the Castro regime and rightly so as they are notorious in stiffing creditors so the only way American agriculture interest who are pursuing the Cuban trade will get guaranteed payment is by having the US Government guarantee the receivables. If the Republicans were clever they would legislate that exporters who want to insure their Cuban receivables get private credit insurance and any insolvency by a Cuban entity is not qualified for a bad debt write-off.

Cuba has economic relationships with the rest of the world so trade in of itself with the US won't change the regime. There is nothing the US can provide Cuba that Cuba can't purchase elsewhere and there is nothing magical about America tourists that will result in more liberty that having contact with European or Canadian tourists. What is magical is the Yankee tourist dollar and why give them that now instead of waiting for the bastards to collapse. I don't recall anyone proposing to bail the Soviet Union out when it was collapsing so why bail these evil murderer brothers and their murderous regime?; 12/22/14, 5:20 PM
virgil xenophon said...: Besides the "minor" item of Cuban debt, also left unmentioned are the current security agreements (recently updated) that Cuba has with Russia and China for basing their long-range nuclear cruise-missile capable bombers in Cuba. How is THAT little fact going to be "normalized?"; 12/22/14, 5:38 PM
Anonymous said...: Prediction: These companies will get their reparations before The Crack Emcee does.; 12/22/14, 8:56 PM
Douglas B. Levene said...: Mitch - My grandfather was the Secretary of the Francisco Sugar Company, a New Jersey corporation, headquartered in NYC, and owned by a Cuban family. It owned a bunch of sugar assets in Cuba, all of which were stolen by the Communists. I don't know who owns the shares of Francisco today, but the records of the properties owned by Francisco are still around and would support a claim against the Cuban Government for compensation. Some of those records are even available on the web: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/manuscript/Braga/braga4.htm; 12/22/14, 9:29 PM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: Mitch, writing a debt off the books is not the same as forgiving it. It just means you are telling your bankers and shareholders you don't expect to be able to collect it the way things stand. If things change ...

President Obama can't settle these debts himself. That would require a treaty, with two-thirds approval in the Senate.; 12/22/14, 9:36 PM
Michael K said...: "Good luck with getting your property back or fair compensation for its seizure."

Hungarian friends of mine have gotten back property after the USSR collapsed and Hungary elected a free government that wanted a free society and economic progress.

None of that applies to Cuba.; 12/22/14, 11:16 PM
Fernandinande said...: jr565 said...
Obama said his policy toward Cuba “will be guided by one word: libertad.”

Typo on "libtard".; 12/23/14, 8:38 AM
Anonymous said...: Prediction: These companies will get their reparations before The Crack Emcee does

Easy predication to make. Rich white guys always gets theirs before the poor black guys do.; 12/23/14, 9:40 AM