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Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
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Sales rank 1,485
Customers rating (based on 678 reviews)
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With new material from the author "Economic hit men," John Perkins writes," are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as Empire but one that has taken on terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization." John Perkins should know-he was an economic hit man for an international consulting firm that worked to convince developing countries to accept enormous loans and to funnel that money to U.S. corporations. Once these countries were saddled with huge debts, the American government and international aid agencies were able to request their "pound of flesh" in favors, including access to natural resources, military cooperation, and political support. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is the story of one man's experiences inside the intrigue, greed, corruption and little-known government and corporate activities that America has been involved in since World War II, and which have dire consequences for the future of democracy and the world.
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| Publisher | Plume | | Release date | 12/2005 | | Availability | Usually ships in 24 hours | | Edition | Paperback |
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 Excelente
Amazing I strongly recommend it for any person that really are interest on what goes on with this big corporation, and our goverment.
 Boring ego trip
Much of the economic premise of this book is obviously true. However, now it is presented as a personal reflection on a participants life. It feels like fiction and it probably is. In short, he is stealing from the poor and giving to the rich and continuously feels guilty about it, but still confinues this for decades.
Why? He is a victim himself. As a youngster he was profiled by the NSA and they exploit their knowlegde of his weaknesses, to make him do these bad things!
Some of his weaknesses are poor writing skills, too much fantasy, and a large ego that needs a boring life to be made interesting.
Confessions of a Fantasist?
I grew up squarely in the center of the American economic imperialism of the 60s and 70s that this book seeks to expose and can only say that I find the author's effort terribly disappointing. Some mysterious woman appears early on to recruit him as an "economic hitman", never to appear again; conspiracies seem to be hatched but one lacks all detail about the conspirators; dots just don't connect. It is very hard not to come to the conclusion that the author was just a garden variety cog in the gears of the American international business juggernaut who has painted and shaded his career in order to make himself into an international man of mystery. Overestimate electric demand for a power plant you want to build in a third world country! Push large loans! Yes! Isn't this awesome Mini-Me! Had he been a mortgage broker I'm sure he would be writing about his mission to mire homeowners in debt so as to control the vote.
What's weirdly missing, except in flashes, is the real feel of this period. One of the things completely absent is the staggering corruption that American firms often ran up against. For every United Fruit there was some construction company that had to revise its geological studies (and the engineering) so a new plant could be built on the land of a politician's relative. That, or lose out to a German or Japanese company. I was personally acquainted with one of the most powerful oil executives for Europe and the Middle East. His skills would have made Machiavelli proud, but the remarkable thing was how he put them to use in order to stymie politicians on the make or clean up scams that afflicted local operations. Muckraking journalists would actually come to the guy because he was a straighter shooter than anyone else they talked to.
The end of the book, where the author suggests forming study groups to discuss it is stunningly hilarious in its unreality. Study what exactly? I'm sure the author would argue that there's a million and one things he can't tell us or he'd be shot. Well, he should write the book that will get him shot. Braver people seem to be doing this every day. Until then there's really not much to discuss.
Terrible Stuff
Here's one of the best lines from this book: "As chief economist, I was not only in charge of a department at MAIN and responsible for the studies we carried out around the globe, but I was also expected to be conversant with current economic trends and theories." (P. 87, paperback edition) You don't say!
Mr. Perkins is a strict adherent to the George Costanza maxim of "Remember, it's not a lie if you believe it." He writes like a tenth grader blazing through a term paper the night before it's due, frantically cutting and pasting from whatever internet source he can find. What you get is a sophomoric and imbecilic narrative. Better yet, Mr. Perkins is like that creepy cousin or uncle every family seems to have, you know the one, he's done everything and knows everyone, name dropping, talking in vague generalities and acting as if he's imparting earth-shattering revelations. But all he's really doing is making an [...] of himself.
This is terrible stuff. For a serious discussion on this subject matter, you might want to read Walter Karp's "The Politics of War: The Story of Two Wars Which Altered Forever the Political Life of the American Republic 1890-1920".
Global Empire through a far more subtle manner
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man takes an in depth view of America's history and consequently world history. Perkins ties our economic agenda into the machine consisting of government, corporations, and banks, demonstrating how imperialism is stronger and more present than ever, but has taken on a far more subtle approach. He indulges into his corporate role as an economist who helped take over foreign governments through fallacious economic projections resulting in amounts of debt equivalent to enslavement. Perkins continues to write about the alternatives faced when men such as him didn't succeed, specifically situations such as those we face now in Iraq.
Greed, global empire and corruption are all disastrous truths most would prefer not to touch, but the feeling of ignorance before reading this book towers that miniscule desire to turn the other cheek.
Josh L.
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