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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 –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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. –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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.” –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
“Perkins is both alarming and entertaining, writing with the cutting precision and wit of a hard-boiled novelist.”
—Rocky Mountain News
“A sweeping, bold assault on the tyranny of corporate globalization, full of drama and adventure, with devastating stories of greed run wild.”
—Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States
“Perkin’s books have helped me better understand something that has been puzzling me for a long time: Why have so many resource-rich countries in the developing world remained steadfastly poor? The answers he gives are both complex and uncomfortable, and none of us in the first world can abrogate responsibility easily.”
—Sting
“This devastating indictment of current economic policies also offers hope by showing the power of the growing movement toward a caring economics worldwide.”
—Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade and The Real Wealth of Nations
Gary Margolis Ph.D., Director, Center for Counseling and Human Relations, Associate Professor of English, Middlebury College, author, Fire in the Orchard and Falling Awake
“This book is Perkins’ story, that through necessity and courage offers us a way back, beyond salvation, to human justice.” –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Hazel Henderson, author of Beyond Globalization and Building a Win-Win World
“Must reading for those who know another world is possible!” –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
David Korten, author of the bestselling When Corporations Rule the World
“… true, powerful, revealing, and bone chilling personal story that names names and connects the dots . . . ” –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Dragonfly Review, November 2004
An adventure thriller that connects the dots between corporate globalization, American Empire, and the dynasty of the House of Bush. –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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.
From the Back Cover
“[A] gripping tell-all book.”
—The Rocky Mountain News
“Astonishing.”
—Boston Herald
“This riveting look at a world of intrigue reads like a spy novel . . . Highly recommended.”
—Library Journal
About the Author
John Perkins is the author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, which spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list. He is a founder and board member of Dream Change and The Pachamama Alliance, two nonprofit organizations dedicated to creating a stable, sustainable, and peaceful world.