>>>I could buy the argument that the embargo caused measurably lower growth, but the poverty has other causes.
>
>Quite a few citations have been provided contrary to your view and my impression had been that everybody from Obama to the Pope to the UN associated the embargo with poverty... but if you have better information, then lets see it.

Obama, the Pope and even the UN are not big champions of the only proven economic model.

I have friends who actually lived under communism, and they all have the same quote:
"They pretend they pay us, we pretend we work." -- Not really a productive model.

I am not aware of any actual practicing communist economies that work well without outside subsidies.

China and Vietnam were poor until they embraced capitalism (while pretending to remain communist).