"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.

Average Rating:


Review: 2009-01-09

loved it
Goes perfectly with the likes of The People's History of the United States. I really loved this book because I had a sense that this was happening but I just didn't know how. Very very good book, a must read for anyone who likes to think critically about American foreign policy, the World Bank and the plight of indigenous people.


Review: 2009-01-09

Could not put it down
I found this book an amazing read. It combined reality with subterfuge on a massive scale, and showed how modern Imperialism impoverishes third world countries while making their political families wealthy and indebting these nations. This is all deemed necessary to turn them into the pawns in the superpower chess game. Forget democracy, as preached by President Bush, his machine is perpetuating these values - just think of the keywords "Haliburton" and "Cheney" in rebuilding Iraq.

What was most powerful for me was how the author came to his own epiphany and changed his lifetime goals. The book was suppressed for some time but I for one am so pleased that it was published. Now we can do something about this.

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