Golden reforms

This week, we look at media comment on the continued rise in the price of gold, and on economic reforms in Cuba.

In praise of gold

Though we no longer pay for our daily needs with it, gold continues to hold a strong attraction, writes The Guardian.

… [Gold] hit an all-time peak price the other day of $1,264 an ounce, five times the level of a few years ago. By rights this shouldn’t be happening: the invention of modern currencies and systems of financial transaction ought to have ended the need for physical evidence of wealth … The rising price has nothing to do with a lack of supply and everything to do with emotional instinct. People trust gold as they do not Treasury promissory notes. …

Cuban capitalism

During the next six months, 500,000 state employees will lose their jobs in Cuba. According to the Financial Times, Cuba’s leadership is turning to capitalism to save socialism.

Fidel Castro claims his ironic quip about how “the Cuban model doesn’t even work for us any more”, was misunderstood. Coincidence or not, soon afterwards Cuba’s sole trade union announced a raft of economic reforms that makes Margaret Thatcher look like a leftist radical. … But restructurings, as any chief executive knows, require fresh capital, and Cuba does not have any. … [T]his reform will likely beget further change — as happened in the former Soviet bloc before the fall of the Berlin Wall. …