Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins Summary and Reviews

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Book Reviews of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Book Review: The Global Economic Empire - A Gripping Eye-Opener!!,
Summary: 5 Stars

Perkins resigned from the job about 20 years ago, because morally and ethically, he felt it was "wrong to play such a key role in creating an international empire at the expense of the poor and less advantaged around the world."

The author was paid extremely well to be an "economic hit man," as he describes the position. He worked alongside the heads of the IMF, World Bank, and other notable global financial institutions. Perkins began writing a book shortly after he resigned, with the working title, "Conscience of an Economic Hit Men." He wanted to dedicate the book to Jaime Rold?s Aguilera, former president of Ecuador, and Omar Torrijos Herrera, former president of Panama. He had enormous respect for both men, and thought of the two as "kindred spirits." Unfortunately, Roldos and Torrijos, who had been his former clients, both died in fiery plane crashes. According to Perkins, their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated, targets of the CIA, because they opposed the goals of corporate, government, and banking leaders, which were, and are, to build and maintain a global empire. The CIA has long assisted American corporations to remain dominant in foreign markets, by overthrowing governments hostile to unregulated capitalism.

In the early 1970s, the Royal House of Saud agreed to send most of their petro-dollars back to the United States and invest them in U.S. government securities. The Treasury Department used the interest from these securities to hire U.S. companies to develop Saudi Arabian infrastructure, and the House of Saud agreed to maintain the price of oil at reasonable limits. In return, the US would use its resources to keep the House of Saud in power.

After attempting to implement something similar to the Saudi policy in Iraq, and failing, US industry, in concert with government, wanted to depose Saddam Hussein. Saddam did not play ball. When the "economic hit men" were not able to convince the infamous dictator to cooperate, CIA "jackals" went in to foment revolution or a coup. It was not so easy, however, to overthrow or kill Saddam. His bodyguards were too good and he used doubles. Perkins draws the conclusion, based on his experience, knowledge and hard facts, that the present Iraqi war was our next step. He cites the billions of dollars in US government contracts awarded to US corporations, like the Bechtel Group Inc., and Halliburton Company's subsidiary Kellog Brown & Root.

The author was persuaded and even bribed to refrain from writing this book about his professional experiences. And, although he began to write on various occasions over the intervening years, he did stop. World events, such as the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1980, the first Gulf War, Somalia, and the rise of Osama bin Laden, convinced him to put his manuscript aside, again and again. Perkins stated in a recent interview with Pacifica Network's Democracy Now program, "When 9/11 struck, I had a change of heart." He concluded the interview by saying, "I believe the World Bank and these other institutions can be turned around....We can change that."

Perkins' tale is a gripping one and the international and political intrigue involved gives the non-fiction book the feel of a suspense thriller. The narrative is very well written and fast-paced. I do highly recommend "Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man." Whether you like Mr. Perkins or not, he has some very valuable information and insights to share. One cannot help but benefit.
JANA

Book Review: A Development Project Salesman Struggles with Conscience
Summary: 3 Stars

In this memoir, John Perkins describes his covert role in expanding American economic influence by encouraging foreign governments to take on so-called development projects that they didn't need, couldn't afford and which wouldn't pay off for them. When the bill came due, the nations couldn't pay the loans and Uncle Sam was able to muscle the countries for concessions that independent countries probably wouldn't otherwise have made. Panama and Ecuador are the best developed examples in this scenario in the book.

Mr. Perkins performed this role ably on behalf of Boston-based engineering and construction firm by creating inflated estimates of the economic benefits of potential projects. In part, this wasn't hard to do because he didn't have the educational background to do the work correctly. But no one in his firm cared. His career advanced because he was so malleable in his upward estimates.

Who benefited? In the short term, such projects create lots of profits for U.S. manufacturers and engineering and construction firms like the one Mr. Perkins worked for and those that have employed so many people in the three Bush administrations (such as Bechtel, Halliburton and the rest of the usual suspects). These projects also help U.S. oil companies get access to new reserves. Wealthy families and politicians in the countries who do the projects often receive hefty amounts for their cooperation.

Who lost? Just about everyone else in those countries. The results described for Ecuador are particularly appalling. Indigenous peoples often suffer the most harm. It can be like when Europeans first moved to the Americas.

Mr. Perkins also makes unsubstantiated statements that if the economic "hit" didn't take the U.S. would follow up with assassins and/or invasions. That part of the case wasn't made effectively in the book. Conspiracy theorists will love the coincidences he describes though.

Mr. Perkins describes in the beginning of the book how he was recruited by the National Security Agency and assumes that either NSA or the CIA was responsible for his training in how to perform his role of overstating economic projections. He offers no verifiable proof that the training he received came from those quarters.

In fact, I found his argument a little strange in this area. In order to encourage him to be irresponsible in making economic projections, he was encouraged to think of himself as an "economic hit man." How is that really the way to encourage a young, idealist person to do the wrong thing? I don't think so. It probably would have made more sense to appeal to his patriotism. I wonder if Mr. Perkins may not have been set up instead by a foreign intelligence operation which wanted Mr. Perkins to eventually repent of his role and share this story. Although I have no proof that this scenario might have occurred, it seems more logical than the story Mr. Perkins assumes is true. If you read the book, decide for yourself what probably happened.

In any event, few readers will approve of the idea that the United States should overtly or covertly encourage countries to make bad public investments in infrastructure projects. This book will be an eye-opener for those who don't realize all of the harm that was done during the 1950s-1970s in this arena. The book itself doesn't provide a thorough look at the practices since then.

With the situation over energy in Ecuador in the balance now, I hope that readers will ask their representatives to look into the role the U.S. has been playing there.

The book isn't a particularly well written one (one of the reasons that I graded it at three stars). The book spends much too much time relating Mr. Perkins' hand-wringing about the ethics of his work over the years. I came away unconvinced about parts of his story. In the places where he describes what's going on as being a short-sighted attempt by his company to make more money, it reads convincingly. Where he ascribes motives to others, the book often doesn't have the proof to make the charges stick. His reasons for waiting so long to protest also seem inadequate to me.

But the real lesson of this book is that we should each examine our consciences about our work . . . and follow the advice of that frontier philosopher, Davy Crockett: "Be sure you're right, then go ahead."

Book Review: Heroic Whistleblower or Greedy Liar?
Summary: 4 Stars

The Author claims that in 1971, after Peace Corps work in Ecuador, he was recruited by the NSA to work undercover as an economist in a private firm of international engineering consultants (Chas T. Main Inc.) His recruiter/trainer "told me that there were two primary objectives of my work. First, I was to justify huge international loans that would funnel money back ..to US companies .. through massive engineering and construction projects. Second, I would work to bankrupt the countries that received those loans so that they would be forever beholden to their creditors.."

He goes on to write about his involvement in the application of these deliberate policies to subjugate Indonesia, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ecuador, etc. In Indonesia's case he details how he produced a plan to finance electrical infrastructure that would enable a 19% growth rate when he knew that realistically the requirement was for a maximum of 5%. The US printed the dollars, the US controlled, international financial agencies lent the money. The vast proportion of the money went to the Bechtels and Halliburtons. Some of the money greased the palms of the developing countries' ruling elites. The huge mass of the populations received no benefit. They remain mired in perpetual poverty (and corporate pollution) as their nations struggle to keep up with the interest payments. Where leaders could not be suborned, as in the case of Torrijos of Panama or Roldos in Ecuador, they were eliminated and replaced with leaders more amenable to American interests.

It could be, and is argued by anti-globalisation campaigners, that this impoverishment of the developing world is a lamentable side-effect of American corporate "vigour." It is however a quantum leap to make the argument that this massive, global, humanitarian disaster, (resulting in premature deaths over the decades on a far greater scale than those resultant from Stalin's policies) is the intentional outcome of a policy of economic empire being deliberately pursued by decision-maker factions within successive American administrations.

The key question is whether or not the author is writing a true report of events he participated in. Though supported by ten pages of references, the book is written in a fairly lightweight, populist style. This choice of style will not give much comfort to academic readers. It could, though support the author's claim that he is writing to gain maximum public traction for his arguments for a change in US policy towards developing countries and the environment. Descriptions of the author's going through the culture barrier and losing confidence in the vision of "his country right or wrong," ring true to a reader who once found himself in a mildly analogous situation. The facts quoted that lend themselves to relatively simple verification (such as the author meeting Graham Greene in Panama City - the dates check out) appear accurate.

Perkins claims that the US invaded Iraq because Saddam refused to succumb to the same inducements successfully offered to the Saudi royal family for US control over their economy in return for protection. An indication of the possible truth or otherwise of Perkin's claims can be found in a reading of the commercial legislation passed by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and which in effect handed over the Iraqi economy to the American corporates, (Orders #12, #17, #39, #40 being particularly relevant.) These early pieces of legislation would indicate that the USA, on taking control of its new conquest, though not prepared for fighting an insurgency, was fully prepared for a take over of the Iraqi economy.

Book Review: A system aimed at outfoxing an unsuspecting customer
Summary: 4 Stars

Perkins coins a term, "corporatocracy" which basically revolves around the concept that the rich get richer...and the poor get poorer. He admits the system is based on corrupting public figures abroad and that it did not take kindly to public figures who refused to be corrupted. He cites the cases of Ecuador President Jaime Roldos (who was killed in a helicopter crash on May 24, 1981) and Panama President Omar Torrijos (who was killed in a plane crash on July 31, 1981) as two leaders who stood for the right of their countries to determine their own destinies...and infers they became casualties of the "jackals" who enforced the system.

Executives in the author's firm had a mentality that they, "milk the cow until the sun sets on our retirement." Perkins concludes that the system fostered a global empire of powerful American firms who where self-centered, self-serving, greedy and materialistic. Ultimately, Perkins hated his life as a chief economist and loathed who he was. Hence, he wrote this book to cleanse his soul. On a balanced note, it is hard to swallow all of Perkin's "confessions." However, there is enough highly credible evidence to support the strongest allegations in this book. Recommended.

Bert Ruiz

Book Review: Lacking in substance
Summary: 3 Stars

This book takes the form of a confessional autobiography, as the title suggests. Perkins is deeply ashamed of the life he led before quitting the corporate sector. He tries to contextualise this within a brief outline of his general life story, born into an impoverished family nonetheless part of some kind of social elite. So at a human level the account of his career moves and motives is interesting.

But you're not going to read this book as a human interest story. The main point obviously is the structure of corporate power. This is where his narrative starts to fill up with holes. The basic story is that he was employed by a private corporation specialising in providing infrastructure services to "developing" countries. He claims that this was essentially a front for imperialist policy imposed by the USA, through which money is used to draw countries into the America camp.

This can happen in either of two ways. For a poor country, vast loans are granted on the assumption (created by the like of Perkins) that they will trigger of very high rates of economic growth. When this growth does not occur countries pile up the debt, default and hence become beholden to their loan shark (i.e. the IMF, international banks, and the American led capitalist sytsem in general). [ps, for a more detailed account of this dynamic, see Chossudovsky, "The Globalisation of Poverty"] For richer countries (normamlly due to oil), there is the opposite problem: they have too much cash. Thus the economic hit man draws up programmes for the investment of this cash in schemes which benefit the USA. For example, Saudi Arabia invests in US treasury certificates (i.e. the American national debt), then uses the interest to pay American firms to develop Saudi Arabia. The Americans get lots of business and profits, whilst the Saudis get development, a steady return on capital and a protected investment. Perkins argues that long term needs for servicing and upgrading futther tie in the Saudis to this system.

Fair enough. But what is the difference between a private company touting for business and a broader government-led conspiracy. Unless Perkins can establish the latter he is ultimately going to look like some kind of Walter Mitty character.

He claims evidence for this link on the basis that he was referred to the private sector by the NSA, which was considering his recruitment (due to family connections in the intelligence services). He then says that after recruitment, a certain "Claudine", in a series of clandestine meetings at a safe house, inducted him into the EHM strategy. Basically she told him that his job was not to guarantee development of third world countries, but to break them with high debts. After this cloak and dagger beginning, Claudine then disappears from the scene. However, if the positive development of third world nations would eventually create indigenous industries, this would then avoid the need for further American consultants in those countries. Plus there would be more competition on the global market for other countries in need of developmental assistance. Therefore, Perkins strategy of saddling countries with debts also works in the interst of his own company. (Whilst his argument appears to be that a policy driven by such an insane economic logic could only be driven by broader governmental (of imperial) policy considerations.)

In the end therefore, Perkins' story is only of any interest if he can demonstrate this link with government. It appears that he does not do that. His references to various coups and assassinations do point to some darker forces at work, but it is all presented as innuendo.

And consider this: surely someone of his undoubted economic expertise would be able to set out in some greater detail the mechanics of the transactions he was involved in, and what made them special when compared to normal commercial transactions. The lack of particular detail on this point is a bit suspicious. The book may not be aimed at an academic audience, but the way he sets up his argument - plus the lack of real substantial evidence on the US government's involvement - calls for more detail which is simply not there.

The book is very light reading, I read it all in one day on a 6 hour train journey. Only really recommended for people who don't really have much background in international politics.