90 miles

Dr. Cook,

If my memory serves me correctly, back in college you did a fair amount of work looking at Fidel Castro and Cuba's economic policies of the last fifty years. With discussion of Castro's inevitable death and the succession of power beginning again, I was hoping that you might be able to take a few moments out of "spend government money season" to enlighten both myself and the readers of your views regarding the Cuban state as well as American policy towards it. What would be necessary to improve the standard of living on the island? Does the American embargo (and the policies that stem from it) really accomplish anything? I realize these are broad questions, please take your eventual post in whatever direction you choose.