Journalism, as a veteran scribe once put it, is a rough old trade.

In what Mr Audrines describes as a barter arrangement (in which the Cubans seem to get the rough end), Caracas will trade them for eight macaws, two tapirs, a puma and four capybaras.

Tracking the flow of money across U. S. borders, TIC data offer a rough idea of America's ability to finance its trade deficit using foreign capital.