Private Taxis, Invisible Hand Coming to Cuba

From David Theroux at the Independent Institute:

Is there now a light ahead in Cuba after decades of repressive communist rule? With his brother Fidel now on the sidelines, Cuban President Raúl Castro has recently lifted a nine-year-old ban on private taxis, “potentially legalizing thousands of unauthorized cabbies who cruise its cities in classic American cars (see photo above).”

As the AP reports, Fidel Castro, who imposed the previous ban, had opposed private cabbies as “enriching themselves at the expense of egalitarian goals.” I gather that for Fidel, only a massive, crushing, incompetent, and inherently corrupt State transportation monopoly/bureaucracy would do.

MP: The gradual transition from the clumsy, oppressive visible foot of the government in Cuba to the invisible hand of the market........