Americas been fighting a cold war against cuba for decades, your tax dollars to topple the castro routine. Im not going to say its a small amount of money, but it doesnt go cheap is america wasting money, including Radio Broadcasts that the people of havana cant here and the Unemployment Rate at best misleading at worst, its a big fat lie. Im ali velshi, and this is real money. The five decade long u. S. Trade embargo against cuba is one that has failed to achieve its goal of toppling the castro regime. It come at a cost to america of billions in loft economic opportunity. The pro business estimates that the u. S. Embargo cost 1. 2 million. And a study by the Peterson Institute found that u. S. Exports from cuba could reach 4. 3 billion if the embargo was lifted. I know the numbers were not huge. Its not the point. The point it it doesnt take sense to deny countries or entrepreneurs access to an apart here is Something Else that doesnt make sense, in light of president obamas policy shift to cuba hundreds of millions the u. S. Spend supporting groups and efforts to bring democracy to coupa. Critics say a cuba. Critics say a glaring example of waste is ongoing support for broadcasts by radio marte and tv marte. Congress spent 660 million to fund what many consider ineffective propaganda aimed at students that cant hear or watch it. Its not huge but symbolic of a broader policy that had almost no quantifiable return on investment. Cutting off the money to what is an anticastro industry will not come without a fight of the reporter its known as domino park in havana. The traditional heart of politics, because of people like this 87yearold cuban exile coming to socialise, talk about politics and play dominos. 30 years ago he and thousands of others left the islands bound for florida in makeshift rafts. In the years since Little Havana evolved from an anticastro hot bed. Dozens of agencies cropped up with the purpose of toppling castrosled government. The activities sustained by hundreds of millions in u. S. Funding. The historic shift in relations is raising questions about whether that stream of money would continue. Those like miguel who founded the anticast roll group. They are concerned about what the new policy will mean for cuba. Given how much we have spent. It makes sense to keep sending money down here to south florida, that are fighting against the castro government. Nothing we have done has changed much. Thats right. Its working 50 . You are saying half the dollars are making a difference. About 80. 80 , he not in power. How is it working. Not only have decades of attempts to dislodge the government failed the money received from the u. S. Government has at times been misused. In 2006 it was clear that 74 million that the u. S. Agency for International Development spent on prodemocracy projects was dolled out to companies without a bidding process. The Accountability Office says one company used the fund to supply sony space stations sweaters and chocolates. For the money that makes it to the democracy, many ended as failures. U. S. A. I. D. Acknowledged creating a Twitter Network on the island. Aimed at protests. Whose idea was it. The program was denied in 2007, 2008. It was scrapped two years later. In 2009 the agency tried again. And attempted to recruit and promote young cuban rappers, like this broadcast here. It was part of a broader effort to pressure change on the island, an attempt exposed and undermined a cuban hip hop scene that started to air frustrations about the castro government on its answer. Between 2009 and 2011 congress allotted 59 million for democracy building projects. It does not include 26 million spent on the office of cuban brode taste, sending news programs with an anticost roe slant. Im not saying its a small amount of money, democracy doesnt come cheap. Reach has improved dramatically. U. S. Taxpayers spent threequarters of a billion on the project since its creation in 1983. Its not clear what the money achieved. To get a sense of what americans are buying for their money, we travelled to cuba. Upon arriving one thing is clear. Radio waves from miami dont often make it through. The cuban government jams medium and shortwaived signals. Here we dont here anything because of the frequency. We cant here it. U. S. Government employees text the cellphones. Yet, despite all of that a recent congressional report found 2 of cubans are listening. That doesnt mean there isnt talk of change in the streets of havana. This is something people are adverse to discuss. There are places in havana a hot corner you see one they are heated. People discuss what is happening in their community. These are the areas that the Miami Community and radio martes hope to target. The buzz is creating much. Especially in those hot groups. They are talking about politics. If you listen long enough its politics and baseball. President obamas new policy opens the door to remittances. Hes proposing taking the office of human broadcasting off the payroll. Congress has to approve the plan. Many of miamis hard liners may be forced to play a new game with an old foe. We are joined now. Great story. We talked about the u. S. A. Ie money, government money. Who is supposed to monitor the dispersal of it. The board of government is supposed to take care of this. It cant find out how much money is spent, until they come out with these reports. Every five or six years, theres allegations that a lot of funding is funnelled through there. Over the decades. It emanated from south florida. Lets talk about the hip hop movement. It is inherently political. This is a pollitt seized version. Theres not a peck of a lot of platforms. The funny things you see the nations resolution. The u. S. Government comes in funnelling the programs. They are unt mined. Frustration. 20 in terms of salary and shortages. You cant tell whether the lyrics were accurate. There was frustration bubbling up. The thinking is the u. S. Government kicked themselves in the foot. Always a pleasure listening to you. Ill talk to the man in charge of anticastro news broadcasts and find tout what america is getting. Tell me whats on your mind keep it here. Americas cold war strategy gald to end the castro failed to end the castro regime. President obama is making challenges. Part of the this involves u. S. Programming on radio marte or tv martes. Critics say they outlived their purpose, and then theres the cost. 26 million. Explaining why u. S. Taxpayers should fund the marte is carlos from the office of broadcasting. Its hard to see what the value in this is. Its not given us a return. Now we have taken a road. How we are looking at cuba. Thank you for having me. I dont know why we dont have a return. This is not an anticastro strategy. This is something the American Government does through voice of rba. And others. Its not unique to cuba. Its monopolized by the government. The martees have an important roll. Lets talk about that. According to the government Accountability Office, less than 2 of islanders listen to the broadcast. If you do the maths, 26 million for 117 employees, to get to 2 . Cuban population. Is that effective. Thats a good question. Remember, the reason why the martes exists is no one can walk around the island with a clib board and do a clipboard and do a survey on how many line or watch the programs. Or receive Text Messages and email. We have a number. After the wall fell a lot of reports came out. A lot of people were watching and risk to voice of america. Its difficult to do a survey on the island. Thats why we exist. Our hope is that therell be free flow of information on the island, and we no longer have to be around. As long as article 19 of the universal declaration of human rights is not honoured by the cuban government. Theres a reason for the martes. Lets talk about the idea of what news is out there. Your complaint, its valid, is that news media on the island is controlled by the government. You site ests by the u. S. Government to sponsor media abroad. Some people in 2015 call it propaganda. Tell me about the martese. How much is propaganda, how much is is news. We dont do a lot of propaganda. We adhere to journalistic standards. The office of Programme Review has given us high marks for doing great journalistic work and thats what we do. We provide news and information to the people in cuba so about event that occur on the island to make an educated decision about their future. Critics say theres an anticastro slant. Anything that is news in that regime is deemed anticastro. We are not anticastro. We are strong for the free flow of information. If the castros are against the information, that makes us anticastro. In 1983, the broadcasting to cuba act, it mentions broadcasting to cuba operated in a manner not inconsistent with the broad Foreign Policy of the United States. Since 1983, the brode Foreign Policy of the United States as relating to cuba has been anticastro, is that tricky . No no its not. Its two different things. I mean the free flow of information efforts is not inconsistent. The president is attempting to normalize, but doesnt mean it has change in terms of mon op olism of the media. Will there be a change considering the change in president s policy. Glad you asked that question. The answer is no. We provide news and information with high standards to the people of cuba of events on the island. Regardless of the policy of the president. Is there a sense of your employees, 117 of you, is there a sense of mission undermined by what the president is doing, a mission to bring democracy to cuba to undermine the castro regime . I dont think so. Our mission is based on article 19 of the universal declaration of human rights which provides for the free flow of information of all individuals. Cuba is a signatory. Thats what they are here from. Thank you for joining us. Carlos, the director of the u. S. Office of cuba broadcasting its a dirty secret about the Unemployment Rate in america. Not many are talking about it. I am. Wall street, and the administration they both want to tell you unemployment is the best its been in the last 68 years. Right. Thats close to being a lie. You call it misleading. The people believe them. I reveal the truth about the jobless rate in 2 minutes. In january we saw 257,000 jobs added to the economy, and an Unemployment Rate of 5. 7 . Or did we . I say to focus on the number of jobs added every month and less attention to the jobless rate because it can be misleading. I say it so much im starting to sound like a broken record. I say this to you every month. Ignore. Ignore. I tend not to like the number focus on the number of jobs created. Jim clifton chairman of ce. O of gallman made waives saying the official number quoted by the Labour Department is a lie. I talked to him about that. You sure made a lot of waves. I dont understand where you go. I can fully justify it is entirely misleading for a lot of reasons that you and i both understand. The lie falls into the jack welsh category, making it sounds like they are rigging something. I dont think they are rigging something. If i could take it back we wouldnt have used big lie, we would have used misleading. It kind of comes out as a big lie. You have two special interest groups. You have wall street and the administration. They want to tell you unemployment is the best its been, and that is close to being a big lie. You call it misleading. Yes. People believe them and its conventional wisdom and its not helpful for analysts trying to figure out where is the middle class. When you say one thing is unemployment is the best its been, we dont have that has a problem. Thats untrue. You and gallop are data people. We need to think about the number of jobs a , and b , the number of people in the workforce available to work wages, the number of hours, that people get to work. Is it parttime, fulltime work and you say as we have said that once you point the picture, it looks different to saying the Unemployment Rate went up by two tenths of a percent or town. That is almost irrelevant. There are now people that know this. It drives me crazy. The more people that give up and drop out of the workforce, the better the unemployment gets. The more that get up are miserably depressed. It got better. The denominator keeps getting smaller. We have a smaller per crept of people in the workforce. Here is the important one. What people want is a fulltime job. They dont want a crappy bad job. The percent of adults with good jobs in america is the lowest its been in three decades, and almost nobody knows that thats where you can find the missing middle class. This is a helpful conversation with you, as opposed to with a partisan political pact who is trying to get points on one side or the other, or someone on wall street trying to do Something Else. What do you suggest we do so that on a regular basis we get better information about employment. I imagine having better information would lead to a better policy making. Let me be clear. The data that comes out of the department of labour is accurate. I do not blame them at all. I blame the white house wall street media. God bless them all. Right now the department of labour reports 48 of the Adult Population 250 million, has a fulltime job. They do 50,000 we do 30,000 we have 44 . They are accurate. Its the department of labour. We dont count selfemployed. Watch gallops payroll to population number and watch the fulltime and the workforce with the department of labour. Those two numbers really matter. The one that media reports, and the wall street. That doesnt matter at all. Its irrelevant. Its not what everyone think it is. Until we use fulltime as a per crept. Population, we are not going to find the missing the dragnet that we have in the middle class. We wont find it until we use those numbers. The department of labour they are using the wrong one. Americans dont know this its available to everybody. You can go to the bureau of labour statistics and its a treasure trove of information. They ask a lot of questions, have a lot of stuff. Out of all the data the media and wall street latched on to a particular number. We are probably a little more sophisticated as more people talk about other numbers. However, in the end. You pose an important question when you dig deeper you find out that the middle class, middle wagerber has not wagerber has not moved ahead. Theres a discrepancy against what most earn and how you carve it up. What is the policy prescription that allows is to be a healthy middle class country. The middle class is hollowed out. Those jobs so theres all kinds of parttime jobs coming in. So those really good fulltime jobs that people want here is why. Because the most reliable place to find good jobs is in small business, when they grow and they stopped growing. They have not stuck their necks out. The other is new business startups. 500 starts of year. Births and deaths. Economists dont know it. Important people trying to do their jobs right dont do it. We have 5,000 dying. The net negative 200. Thats the best pleas. How come we dont have new good jobs thats what they have been doing. Free enterprise is in decline. Thats clifton, the c. E. O. Of gallop. The Unemployment Rate goes down. Jim and i are on the same side of the argument. The Unemployment Rate is no what should be focussed on but the number of rates. In the last year there have been examples, complarl months where the Unemployment Rate in america dropped for the right reason. People are rejoining the workforce, not needing it. Just a distinction you should know about. That is our show. Thank you for joining us. 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