elevated from the diaries
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

By John Perkins

Reviewed by Don Henry Ford Jr.

You can tell when I really like the book, because I can't wait to finish the thing before I start telling others about it.

Such is the case with Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. I bought it yesterday evening and haven't been able to keep my nose out of it. It's well written and I think truthful.

Another review can be found here and Perkins' site is here. eds.

Because there were parts that pertained to Ecuador, a place where I spent part of my teen-age years, and also a place where my dad and several of my brothers continue to do business, I skipped around for awhile, reading the pieces that referenced Ecuador first. Then I went back to the beginning and proceeded, reading in the normal fashion.

This book confirms what I have suspected for so long, that rich corporate interests use money to ensnare and control other countries, much like credit card companies and rent to own places do our own citizens. The author's job was to do exactly that. Premeditated and knowingly.

Here are excerpts lifted from the publisher's site:

From the introduction of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man:

"Economic Hit Men are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel World Bank, US government, and other foreign 'aid' funds into the coffers of international businesses and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, and murder. They play a game as old as Empire but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.

"I should know; I was one."

Summary:

In his controversial book, John Perkins tells the gripping tale of the years he spent working for an international consulting firm where his job was to convince underdeveloped countries to accept enormous loans, much bigger than they really needed, for infrastructure development--and to make sure that the development projects were contracted to U. S. multinationals. Once these countries were saddled with huge debts, the American government and the international aid agencies allied with it were able, by dictating repayment terms, to essentially control their economies. It was not unlike the way a loan shark operates--and Perkins and his colleagues didn't shun this kind of unsavory association. They referred to themselves as "economic hit men."

This is a story of international political intrigue at the highest levels. For over a decade Perkins traveled all over the world--Indonesia, Panama, Ecuador, Columbia, Saudi Arabia, Iran--and worked with men like Panamanian president Omar Torrijos, who became a personal friend. He helped implement a secret scheme that funneled billions of Saudi petrodollars back into the U. S. economy, and that further cemented the intimate relationship between the Islamic fundamentalist House of Saud and a succession of American administrations. Perkins' story illuminates just how far economic hit men were willing to go, and unveils the real causes of some of the most dramatic developments in recent history, such as the fall of the Shah of Iran and the invasions of Panama and Iraq. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, which many people urged Perkins not to write, is a blistering attack on a little-known phenomenon that has had dire consequences for both the lesser-developed countries and for American democracy.

I think it interesting to point out that Perkins was not an employee of a spy agency or of our government, but that he worked in concert with these entities to further the goals of "empire", for lack of a better word. The things he did weren't against the law for the biggest part, in fact they would be considered admirable by proponents of unbridled capitalism.

I look at the appointment of Paul Wolfowitz to the World Bank.

Shit.

How many times can the people be fooled?

He also goes on to say what happened to those leaders that saw through the game and refused to play--those that would not sell out the interests of their own people. Men like Omar Torrillos of Panama. Jackals would then be brought in to assassinate them, or subvert their government. If that didn't work, the final solution would be military power.

What the book doesn't say is this (or at least I don't think so): The tables are turning. When I look at the way we are allowing trade deficits to build with countries like China, I can't help but wonder what our day of payback may look like. Or whether war may be the inevitable result when we decide not to pay.

Jesus used the words: You will reap what you sow. In prison we had a saying with a similar premise: What comes around, goes around.

Gloomy picture. No?

However, I found hope in this book as well.

Lifted from the book:

The prophesy of the Eagle and the Condor:

...in the mists of history, human societies divided and took two different paths: that of the condor (representing the heart, intuitive and mystical) and that of the eagle (representing the brain, rational and material). In the 1490's, the prophecy said, the two paths would converge and the eagle would drive the condor to the verge of extinction. Then, five hundred years later, in the 1990's, a new epoch would begin, one in which the condor and the eagle will have the opportunity to reunite and fly together in the same sky, along the same path. If the condor and the eagle accept this opportunity, they will create a most remarkable offspring, unlike any ever seen before.

The past is done. But we have today.

When is enough, enough? Let's stop this bullshit. Now. By genuinely helping other countries and cultures rather than trying to destroy them, we ensure our own survival. If we continue on the same path: tricking, oppressing and bullying, the day will come when we learn what it's like to be the loser of the game.

Buy and read this book.