Teribus, I notice you don't provide a date for those stats. Here's a quote from the BBC (Jan 2002):

Cuba has recorded its lowest infant mortality rate for four decades, with 6.2 children in every 1,000 dying before the age of one.

According to figures from the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, Cuba - along with Canada - now has the lowest infant mortality rate in the Americas.

Last year (2003) the rate in Cuba was 6.3 - still ahead of the US as a whole, we may be fairly sure. Moreover it is widely accepted - by UNICEF for instance - that the US average masks a significant discrepancy between the rate for whites and the rates for blacks/Hispanics. The rate in Cuba is fairly uniform across the country (admittedly it's a samll country).

Re Corelli Barnett, he was counting years with surpluses and years with deficits in terms of the balance of payments.