Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

by John Perkins

book data

4,433 ratings, 3.70 average rating, 1,033 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		23%
4		37%
3		27%
2		9%
1		2%

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published

December 27th 2005 (first published 2007) by Plume

binding

Paperback, 320 pages

isbn

0452287081 (isbn13: 9780452287082)

description

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 effor...more

[close] 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

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04/16/07

Mona rated it:

bookshelves: life-stories, nonfiction

Read in March, 2007

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, while purportedly the author's memoir and hard-hitting expose of his work in the "corporatocracy", reads more like a flat and repetitive mass market thriller. In the 1970s, John Perkins began working for MAIN, an international consulting firm, as an economist who developed inflated projections of development in poor countries, so that they would then become dependent on richer countries like the United States. As Perkins explains, the "corporato...more Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, while purportedly the author's memoir and hard-hitting expose of his work in the "corporatocracy", reads more like a flat and repetitive mass market thriller. In the 1970s, John Perkins began working for MAIN, an international consulting firm, as an economist who developed inflated projections of development in poor countries, so that they would then become dependent on richer countries like the United States. As Perkins explains, the "corporatocracy" consists of international corporations, banks, and governments that utilize various financial and political resources to enforce and maintain the idea that all economic growth is beneficial, and futhermore, is most beneficial to those that instigate, while those who do not should be exploited. To illustrate this idea, Perkins explains his travels and work in countries such as Panama, Indonesia, and Ecuador. He also details his transition from economic hit man to concerned American citizen.

For all I know, Perkins' account may be one-hundred percent true, but there were several things which I did not find convincing. He presents the idea of the corporatocracy as a novel concept, whereas anyone paying the slightest attention to world politics and history over the past fifty years is most likely already aware of the trend of a few governments, banks and corporations controlling the global arena and the victimization of poorer populations. It is difficult to trust Perkins-the-narrator, especially since he tends toward cloak-and-dagger dramatizations and also because he made a living for many years from deception and exaggeration. He claims that he was intimately involved in events such as the Saudi Arabian Money-Laundering Affair, but many of these claims are not supported by outside evidence. I also did not find Perkins to be a very sympathetic character. He continually expresses his frustration with his job in one sentence and then justifies his choice to stick with it in the next by painting a picture of himself as a victim.

I don't find much of Perkins' account to be reliable, but as a semi-fictional account, more in the line of a mass-market thriller loosely based on reality, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man makes important points about the ways in which the corporatocracy works to uphold the status quo.
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11/22/07

Scott rated it:

Read in November, 2007

Terrible. Here's the book in a nutshell. "I'm in <3rd world country> doing <something bad not backed up by any statistics>. I feel bad about this. I meet <friendly 3rd world local who teaches me the local language>. He takes me to <cultural festivity that no other white man has ever seen>. I learn <specific critique of US imperialism>. I return to my out of touch american enclave and happen upon <famous dictator/dissident/writer>. He <describes ...more

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07/24/07

MacK rated it:

bookshelves: contemporary

Read in August, 2007

I don't doubt that what Perkins says is true. I'm sure that we live in a corporatocracy, a corrupt system of corporate heavyweights leaning on politicos to lean upon the third world to increase their coffers. I hope that I can do more to arrest this development, to teach the students (young people who could become part of this) that questioning is everything and acceptance only comes after much questioning.

My issue is far more with the writing and utter stupidity of Perkins himself. ...more

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

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09/09/07

Anna rated it:

Read in March, 2007

Good message, important, but reads like fiction. If this guy wanted to have any serious impact he should have written something less sensational. Also, he's a jackass. He spent his whole life screwing over everybody, including his friends, and then he writes a book (for which he probably made lots of money and became famous) and we're supposed to believe this guy suddenly developed a conscience? I don't buy it.

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

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08/21/08

Trevor rated it:

At the end of Three Days of the Condor the guy who is not Robert Redford, the guy who is the evil CIA operative who has been trying to ‘bring him home’ throughout the film - which we have guessed is a euphuism for ‘take him out’ - is talking about why the CIA does bad, manipulative things in the world. He tells Redford that it is simple economics and anyway, what would Redford expect them to do? Redford says he should ask the American people first. The CIA man looks at Redford in the ...more At the end of Three Days of the Condor the guy who is not Robert Redford, the guy who is the evil CIA operative who has been trying to ‘bring him home’ throughout the film - which we have guessed is a euphuism for ‘take him out’ - is talking about why the CIA does bad, manipulative things in the world. He tells Redford that it is simple economics and anyway, what would Redford expect them to do? Redford says he should ask the American people first. The CIA man looks at Redford in the way so many people do when confronted with the naivety of the person they are talking to, but finally replies, “Ask them when there's no heat and they're cold. Ask them when their engines stop. Ask them when people who have never known hunger start going hungry. Want to know something? They won't want us to ask them. They'll want us to get it for them.”

The whole way through this most remarkable book I found myself thinking of that line and that last scene from Three Days of the Condor. This is one of the most fascinating books I’ve read in quite a long time. It reads like a Le Carre novel or something by Graham Green, and yet it is autobiographical.

A young man becomes drawn into international finance and has the role of convincing third world countries (particularly the leaders of these countries) to take out loans that are so huge their countries will never be able to repay them. They do this so as to ensure that these countries become satellites orbiting the American Empire. His job was to make these countries compliant, dependent, and endlessly economically exploitable.

Perkins asserts that the economic hit men were potentially only phase one of what could become a three phase attack on the democratic rights and independence of foreign nations. If bribing the leaders of countries with massive loans they could never repay didn’t work, then the jackals were sent in to kill selected targets and to create mayhem that would ensure the ‘right’ people would be put into power. If this didn’t work, then US troops were sent in. He gives instance after instance of where this pattern was applied in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia over a period of about three decades. It would be hard to imagine someone from the US reading this book without a growing sense of shame. It is hard to read this book from anywhere in the first world without feelings of responsibility, disgust and self-loathing. He reminds us continually that our lavish and unsustainable life style is only possible by the exploitation unto death of large parts of the globe.

This is also a remarkably well written autobiography – if Noam Chomsky was to make up a character who walked the path of evil before converting and walking the path of righteousness, he’s have come up with someone pretty much like John Perkins. Perkins does not come out of this book a saint, but he does come out of it a bit of a hero – I think.

It surprises me more I can say that this book ever got published. I believe we live in times when global capitalism is so cocksure of its pre-eminence and unassailability that it doesn’t even bother to cover up its deeds. I think I preferred it when the rulers of the world at least pretended they were concerned we might overthrown them if we caught them at their cheating. I think I preferred it when they would lie to us, if for no better reason than purely out of shame. Now they don’t even bother to treat us to that level of respect. We have become completely contemptible. Where they can do whatever they like and then rub our noses in it and we will only shake our heads and complain about how powerless we are.

This really is a fascinating book, fascinating in the literal sense of having one’s attention stolen as we read. Like I said, this reads like a spy novel, but made even more compelling by it being true.

This book demands to be read.
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01/29/08

Maura rated it:

bookshelves: economics, non-fiction

Read in January, 2006

I'd had high expectations of this book and was very disappointed--mostly because I wasn't able to get past the fact that Perkins is a chauvinistic pig who I hated from the beginning til the end. He must have thought the fact that he later wrote a "confessional" about being a chauvinistic pig would make his readers forgive him or feel sorry for him, but that definitely wasn't the case for me. Also, he writes like a horny 10th grader--very poorly, and in the middle of discussing serious...more

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08/13/07

Len rated it:

I don't know why I keep reading books like this...I only get more and more depressed about the state of the world. Perkins' story is well told and it kept me interested throughout.

Like a lot of other political books I've read of late, this one is made even more relevant by the events that have occurred even in the short time since it was published. The book tells the tale of the American led imperialism around the world leading up to the events of 9/11 and even the subsequent invasi...more

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03/15/07

sonia rated it:

(review of other edition)

It's an interesting story. He has the perspective of the "insider" in the whole international development industry. Obviously then, his tales of drinking coffee with Torijjos or dealing with Iranian revolutions in the 1970s is fun to read.

Although, he reaches a point by the end of the book where he goes a bit overboard with his guilt. You empathize with him all the way through the book until he just starts spewing nonsense about feeling guilty for Iraq and 9/11. I think it...more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

1 comment

09/23/07

Jeff rated it:

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: nobody

Boring, self righteous, and, it turns out, totally made up!

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

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03/01/09

Thamrong rated it:

Read in January, 2009

Nothing altruistic about foreign aids; multilateral agencies come in many colors and shapes like World Bank,Asian Bank, US Aid and IMF. Less developed countries leaders succumbed to the temptation of selling their sovereignty to the devils. The lucrative loans for infrastructure loan is not meant for social development to benefit the poor mess instead to ensnare the host countries for political allegiance and control. Who benefits! The local oligarchy. The book reinforce my believe of the decept...more

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10/24/08

Will rated it:

bookshelves: non-fiction

Read in October, 2006

This is a remarkable work, decades in the making. Perkins is the real deal, an economist who worked for international consortia to pillage the third world. The modus operandi was to perform economic analysis of target nations that indicated a rate of growth far in excess of any real possibility in order to justify offering those nations huge loans, loans they were never expected to be able to repay. The point of this was twofold. First, the money loaned would find its way right back in the pocke...more

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02/07/08

Seth rated it:

recommends it for: appropriately skeptical people; not Oliver Stone

if you are not familiar with this book, it is the memoir of a purported "economic hit man" (he says people of this profession call themselves that) who has seen the error of his ways and wants to alert the world to a vast corporate conspiracy that enslaves us in a vicious cycle of global economic hegemony, debt and warfare.

i should say that i think the basic structure of his observations is true - that is, i believe the events he describes, and more or less in his observati...more if you are not familiar with this book, it is the memoir of a purported "economic hit man" (he says people of this profession call themselves that) who has seen the error of his ways and wants to alert the world to a vast corporate conspiracy that enslaves us in a vicious cycle of global economic hegemony, debt and warfare.

i should say that i think the basic structure of his observations is true - that is, i believe the events he describes, and more or less in his observations of chains of action. but it gets a little dicey once he tries to weave his experiences together into an encompassing narrative. this is primarily for two reasons: the author is a) a bit of an underdeveloped manchild whose favorite recollections are often of ogling exotic women, and b) a very mediocre writer.

the purported events of his own life suggest that he is highly intelligent. his interior narrative kind of doesn't. he has emotional/intellectual epiphanies that oddly don't match up with the trajectory his career is taking, and he also makes himself out to be too naïve when perhaps a less forgiving admission of his thoughts, motives, and actions lines up much better with the scene he is describing. (example: he falsifies data for economic reports not because it is simply the selfish and convenient thing to do, but because he has a confabulated notion that a scheme he already knows will be deleterious to a developing country is better than nothing, or some abstract alternative.)

nevertheless, i think this is a good book overall for a popular audience. i largely believe that he was in the places he said he was. it makes sense to me that someone with these kinds of quirks and delusions could actually be a successful consultant in developing countries. i know many people who are much smarter that do such work, but they also don't spend thirty years mucking up their lives in this shit before they go hippie, write books about the powers of lucid dreaming, and then cash in on a saucy tell-all volume.

i'll reiterate: i'm glad he wrote it, and i'm glad i'm reading it. where it goes astray is in his rationalizations of his own role, and his rationalizations of how the whole global economy works. i already discussed the former, so i'll just say a bit about the latter. in a phrase, he puts too much intentionality into it all. he believes that american corporations rule the world nearly absolutely, and that they intentionally structure the global political economy to work by coercing people into hiring them to do big contracting jobs in developing countries wherein debt spending in the developing country assures that government's pliability in years to come (this is the role of the hit man - to shill out these golden manacles around the world). the only exceptions come when a maverick national leader flouts this idea, whereupon the "jackals" (the cia, of course) will try to underhandedly assassinate the offending parties (cue the oliver stone director's credit). if this fails, then it is time to bring out the full military to invade the country.

these things do happen (more or less, in the broadest of strokes), but they are not nearly the whole story. there are far too many kinds of corporations, institutions, and economies for it to play out so neatly. a quick example: the companies he names who dictate the rules of this game are the contractors made famous by our current iraq debacle: halliburton, brown & root, etc. halliburton is the 100th largest corporation in the us, about 1/15 the size of wal-mart, which is #1 in terms of revenue. granted, halliburton is party to some nasty things (and so is wal-mart, though not so much regarding contracting third world infrastructure), but it seems manifest that only a simplistic mind would imagine a world in which a few guys could sit around in a room and scheme up what we see happening across the globe in about 200 countries. while he has quick and interesting accounts of u.s. fuckups like iran, they don't come close to doing justice to the kind of complexity we see out there. to perkins, things look the way they do because someone wanted them to. to me, they look the way they do because power has a way of finding the path of least resistance to its accumulation, and as such, people can have amazingly disproportionate power without holding a fucking clue as to what is going on, and odd, unscripted things happen much more often than perkins' james bond theory of global economic development allows.

i've now taken too long examining a somewhat facile argument. suffice to say, it's an interesting document, also with a lot of unintended humor. if anything, it just goes to show how fallible many of the people are who perform crucial work in structuring economies around the world.

note: i have only read a portion of this book. but i do feel qualified to comment. i will elaborate if i find anything else of note as i go along.(less)

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12/22/07

Naila Siddiqui rated it:

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: people who don't read

This is currently the worst book I have recently read. It really makes me really wish that A People's History of the US was the standard Public School history text book. If you have never read a newspaper, book, or left your house and never plan on doing the above mentioned activities, then maybe you should read this book, it really is a quick read (all you really need is the last 3 chapters, if that). Not only was it terribly written, the author focused way to much on his underdeveloped self...more

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11/08/07

atthesametime rated it:

bookshelves: business, totalcrap

Read in January, 2005

This is garbage. Worse than that, I think this book is dangerous. First of all, I think Perkins is a total liar. I don’t doubt that there are people out there that make their living by betting against developing countries, and I don’t doubt that there are people who have an economic incentive for progressive third world leaders to fail. But I really doubt that the way these people ply their trade is by having beautiful blonds show young business guys (in this case, Perkins) the dark path by ...more

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08/13/07

Dan rated it:

Read in March, 2005

recommends it for: hippies, anti globalization folks, people curious about the controversy

This book is autobiographical by a former economist for the world bank. He describes how he undermined the economies and governments of third world countries by making wildly optimistic projections about their growth as to facilitate getting them into debt to first world countries. There is lots of personal cloak and dagger type anecdotes about how he was supposedly trained by the NSA.

This book is written simply and it reads quickly. The writing in simplistic and narrative. Altho...more

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07/02/07

Emily rated it:

bookshelves: booksofthepast

recommends it for: those who don't think that the US is doing some dirty stuff!

Hah, this book PROVES it! Now anyone who wants to argue that the American government is involved in the economies of foreign counries puerly for humanitarian reasons can take off the blinders! For that matter, anyone who doesn't think that MOST of what the US is doing in other countries is screwed up can also remove said blinders. This book, while not incredibly well written, chronicles the experiences of John Perkins, a former Peace Corps volunteer, as he embarks on the career of "econo...more

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05/25/07

Jeff Maxwell rated it:

(review of isbn 0045228708)

Read in January, 2007

recommends it for: economic geeks like myself

Here's why a lot of people won't like this book: it's brutally honest, historically accurate, and it has a message.

Here's why a lot of people will like this book: see above.

Perkins story about himself is not for everyone; I'll tell you that right now. The biggest reasons are a) his constant dealings with historical leaders, politics, and world geography throughout the 60's, 70's, and 80's; and b) even though he translates many economic terms and explains what he's doing,...more

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09/17/07

Nathan rated it:

bookshelves: cia, history, history-crime, history-politics, science-social-theory-etc-, trust-no-one

Read in April, 2005

recommends it for: Shoppers.

The scariest thing about this book is that if you read it having read nothing about the CIA or the overseas financial games the agency (and US corporations acting with CIA influence) has played around the world, it seems like frightening fiction written by a conspiratorial nutjob. If you read it having read a few books about the history of the CIA, you're twice as scared because you know it all may be true. Perkins writing is fitting for the topic, and reading Confessions of an Economic Hitman i...more

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12/29/08

Matthew rated it:

Read in October, 2008

I love the whole conspiracy theory, hiding behind the ignorant veil the masses, theme that this book so intelligently portrays. This book takes a unique approach to the entire world of cloak and dagger showing how the economic pressures placed upon many of the world's struggling nations through the devious actions of America, in cooperation with many other superpowers, are actually more devastating than even our military ones. This book made me excited, sad, and angry all at once. It is a great ...more

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08/12/08

Maura rated it:

bookshelves: economics

Read in July, 2007

recommended to Maura by: Dr. Schweickart
recommends it for: AMERICANS

This is a TERRIFYING, DEPRESSING but MUST-READ book giving an insider's perspective into American corporate amorality.

I appreciate that the author wrote this book and honestly detailed his role in the exploitation of less-developed countries. The author's company worked on the assumption that everyone in power is corruptible; heartbreakingly, this turned out to be almost entirely accurate. I strongly disliked the author for the irreparable damage he's done to countless innoce...more

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