Confessions of an Economic Hit Man By John Perkins
Product Description
From the author of the phenomenal New York Times bestseller, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, comes an exposé of international corruption— and an inspired plan to turn the tide for future generations
With a presidential election around the corner, questions of America’s military buildup, environmental impact, and foreign policy are on everyone’s mind. Former “Economic Hit Man” John Perkins goes behind the scenes of the current geopolitical crisis and offers bold solutions to our most pressing problems. Drawing on interviews with other EHMs, jackals, CIA operatives, reporters, businessmen, and activists, Perkins reveals the secret history of events that have created the current American Empire, including:
• How the “defeats” in Vietnam and Iraq have benefited big business
• The role of Israel as “Fortress America” in the Middle East
• Tragic repercussions of the IMF’s “Asian Economic Collapse”
• The current Latin American revolution and its lessons for democracy
• U.S. blunders in Tibet, Congo, Lebanon, and Venezuela
From the U.S. military in Iraq to infrastructure development in Indonesia, from Peace Corps volunteers in Africa to jackals in Venezuela, Perkins exposes a conspiracy of corruption that has fueled instability and anti-Americanism around the globe, with consequences reflected in our daily headlines. Having raised the alarm, Perkins passionately addresses how Americans can work to create a more peaceful and stable world for future generations.
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Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #484 in Books
Published on: 2005-12-27
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
320 pages
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
John Perkins started and stopped writing Confessions of an Economic Hit Man four times over 20 years. He says he was threatened and bribed in an effort to kill the project, but after 9/11 he finally decided to go through with this expose of his former professional life. Perkins, a former chief economist at Boston strategic-consulting firm Chas. T. Main, says he was an "economic hit man" for 10 years, helping U.S. intelligence agencies and multinationals cajole and blackmail foreign leaders into serving U.S. foreign policy and awarding lucrative contracts to American business. "Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars," Perkins writes. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is an extraordinary and gripping tale of intrigue and dark machinations. Think John Le Carré, except it's a true story.
Perkins writes that his economic projections cooked the books Enron-style to convince foreign governments to accept billions of dollars of loans from the World Bank and other institutions to build dams, airports, electric grids, and other infrastructure he knew they couldn't afford. The loans were given on condition that construction and engineering contracts went to U.S. companies. Often, the money would simply be transferred from one bank account in Washington, D.C., to another one in New York or San Francisco. The deals were smoothed over with bribes for foreign officials, but it was the taxpayers in the foreign countries who had to pay back the loans. When their governments couldn't do so, as was often the case, the U.S. or its henchmen at the World Bank or International Monetary Fund would step in and essentially place the country in trusteeship, dictating everything from its spending budget to security agreements and even its United Nations votes. It was, Perkins writes, a clever way for the U.S. to expand its "empire" at the expense of Third World citizens. While at times he seems a little overly focused on conspiracies, perhaps that's not surprising considering the life he's led. --Alex Roslin
From Publishers Weekly
Perkins spent the 1970s working as an economic planner for an international consulting firm, a job that took him to exotic locales like Indonesia and Panama, helping wealthy corporations exploit developing nations as, he claims, a not entirely unwitting front for the National Security Agency. He says he was trained early in his career by a glamorous older woman as one of many "economic hit men" advancing the cause of corporate hegemony. He also says he has wanted to tell his story for the last two decades, but his shadowy masters have either bought him off or threatened him until now. The story as presented is implausible to say the least, offering so few details that Perkins often seems paranoid, and the simplistic political analysis doesn't enhance his credibility. Despite the claim that his work left him wracked with guilt, the artless prose is emotionally flat and generally comes across as a personal crisis of conscience blown up to monstrous proportions, casting Perkins as a victim not only of his own neuroses over class and money but of dark forces beyond his control. His claim to have assisted the House of Saud in strengthening its ties to American power brokers may be timely enough to attract some attention, but the yarn he spins is ultimately unconvincing, except perhaps to conspiracy buffs.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Jim Garrison, author, America As Empire, President of the State of the World Forum
"John Perkins has written a book that shakes one's confidence in the ethics of the prevailing economic system."
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Customer Reviews
The dark side of our contemporary empire
The British wore their empire proudly, we as Americans try to deny our dark side. Whether you finally choose to play down this dark side or come to the conclusion that things must change, you should at least read this insider's story and weigh his conclusions.
What this story reveals is painful at times, but Perkins writes with an engaging and deeply personal style. What some reviewers are interpreting as egoistic actually is breaking new ground. His work is a twist on the traditional Calvinistic "confessional" tract: a call for a secular spirituality that can embrace and make demands on capitalism for the sake of democracy.
It is hard not to feel jealous of Perkins, however, as he travels the globe with all his power, money, and privilege. It is as if he is a successful Faust: he made his bargain with the devil and yet has never had to pay his pound of flesh.
Perhaps he has now made a bargain with the Light Side to speak and write and lead us all to find a better way. He's got his work cut out for him, since most of us participate in some way in the present system. We all need conversions. I basically trust the guy, but each reader must reach his/her own very personal judgments about his story.
The way to read his story is with an open mind and heart: does what he is saying help to explain things you have read and seen? What defensive reactions are you experiencing and why? What inner work do you need to do to free yourself from the mentalities of empire? Or would you rather go on denying, willing to make the compromises of a hitman even though the world has had enough of that game?
Or, perhaps, his piece of the puzzle is too dark, too one-sided, or not exactly what we need as a world right now? Is the truth too hard to stomach, or can it motivate us to change? Those who disagree with Perkin's call to change need to come up with their own way to understand the failures of the West in our engagements around the world. The statistics of failure are too stark. The cries of anger and pain are too clear.
Just as our international corporations have pillaged other countries, this same corporations-government has blatantly pillaged us in Iraq. I was deeply offended as an American citizen by the irresponsible "use" of money. Their(our) behavior made it clear to me before I even read this book that this was business as usual for them, so I was not surprised by John's confession. Much of what John reveals is actually crying out in the newspapers and around us day after day.
Ultimately, this is a book about spirituality. If we reflect deeply on what each of us have experienced, read, seen, and know about the present state of our society, and our corporate, governmental, and institutional culture, we have to admit that we have slid down the wrong track over the last decades and need to embrace change with courage, a clean heart, and a new commitment to our deepest principles and values.
Lunch with this egomaniacal con-man would be a total nightmare
I picked up the book in Abu Dhabi, where it was prominently displayed in that corpotacracy Western cultural imperialist bastion the "Virgin Megastore"... in Abu Dhabi Mall (built by Australian imperialist construction firms!!!)
While I found part of the book interesting (he is a good storyteller, and his accounts of Trujillo in Panama in particular are fascinating) the book was incredibly disappointing as a whole.
This is due primarily to:
1. The lack of any substantive facts about his "EHM" work or the results of it, for which we are left to simply take him at his word;
2. His deeply self-centered and dangerously oversimplified notions of how the world economy works, colored with further personal narratives of dubious factual quality and very weak sourcing; and
3. The relentless self-aggrandizing and redemption-seeking that just kills the style and completely erodes his credibility.
As a memoir naturally whole book is about the author, John Perkins, but this does not keep him from including an additional 4-page timeline of his life and his achievements, and 3 more pages about... himself. I mean, this guy has such an ego I am certain having lunch with him would be a nightmare, just from reading the book.
Throughout the whole book, Perkins dubiously links himself to major world events, another reflection of his pathologically self centered world-view.
In the chapter "Pimping and Financing Osama bin Laden", he somehow links his brief and negligible work in Saudi arranging an escort for an unnamed member of the royal family to Osama bin Laden.
He links himself an his work to Osama via... a US News and World Report article and another article in Vanity Fair - which he probably picked up at a supermarket check-out isle.
Overall the book weaves a decent story and provides an interesting look at some of the many evils of US foreign policy - but it is by no means credible, and by no means well balanced or complete.
Perkins, based on his numerous other titles on Amazonian spirituality et al, may have had a bit much ayahuasca to remember all of the events clearly enough and as such, his book makes for a bit of a waste of time compared to the many other titles on the subject.
A good read despite the author's ego
This was my first introduction to the dark side of globalization, so I was fascinated with the stories despite the author's obvious love affair with himself. I have read some of the other reviews attacking the book's credibility, but I believe that the despicable interventions into developing economies to make a quick buck are real. Why wouldn't they be? We see that sort of slash-and-burn capitalism rewarded every day in the US. Companies are bought, sold, and merged with no regard for peoples' jobs or local economies. Shareholders and CEOs are the only concern. I started with Perkins' other book on the topic, The Secret History of the American Empire, which is more of the same.
That said, it is really important for smart people to start reading credible accounts of the failure of Chicago School economics, which will be revealed as one of the biggest frauds of our day and a true threat to democracy. Selfishness wins in the short term, but true self interest dictates that we invest in fair play, sharing resources, and placing justice above all. In the long run, the success of the community benefits the individual the most. Market forces do not naturally tend toward peace and equal rights, which people universally demand and deserve. Sorry to ruin the frat party.
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