Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

John Perkins (Goodreads Author)

3.86 · Rating details · 32,621 ratings · 3,486 reviews

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 ...more

Get A Copy

Paperback, 303 pages

Published December 27th 2005 by Plume (first published 2004)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Constitution of the United States of America by The Founding Fathers

The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the U... by Founding Fathers

The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Best Books to Become an Informed Voter

872 books — 1,087 voters

Must Read Non-Fiction

2,917 books — 3,080 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.86 ·

Rating details

· 32,621 ratings · 3,486 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Aug 21, 2008 Trevor rated it it was amazing

Shelves: economics, history, social-theory

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 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.
...more

flag 125 likes · Like · see review

Nov 22, 2007 Scott rated it did not like it

Terrible. Here's the book in a nutshell. "I'm in <3rd world country> doing . I feel bad about this. I meet . He takes me to . I learn . I return to my out of touch american enclave and happen upon . He like a prophet." The process then repeats.

Anyway, I'm sure the ideas in this book will help some 19 year old get laid. and if you are that 19 year old then I can not recommend this book highly enough. ...more

flag 110 likes · Like · see review

Sep 09, 2007 Anna rated it liked it

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.

flag 69 likes · Like · see review

Mar 28, 2009 Kainan rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, poli-sci

My short review is this: 'Confessions' is a good introduction to the darker side of foreign policy and the effects of globalization.

My slightly longer explanation is this: Paradoxically, what makes the book more accessible is also what turns many people off to it. It takes a chunk of history about a particular topic, and describes it in largely narrative form. Much of this is due to the book being an 'account' of Perkins' career during that time. Admittedly, it becomes somewhat taxing at times t ...more

flag 64 likes · Like · see review

Oct 24, 2008 Will Byrnes rated it really liked it

Shelves: brain-candy, nonfiction, economics

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 into the poc ...more

flag 39 likes · Like · see review

May 25, 2007 Jeff Maxwell rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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, how, where, when, and wh ...more

flag 33 likes · Like · see review

Nov 08, 2007 Sean Sullivan rated it did not like it

Shelves: totalcrap, business

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 inte ...more

flag 31 likes · Like · see review

Aug 13, 2007 Len rated it really liked 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 invasion of Iraq. ...more

flag 30 likes · Like · see review

Jan 29, 2008 Maura rated it it was ok

Shelves: economics, non-fiction

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 issues he ...more

flag 22 likes · Like · see review

Aug 03, 2012 Vheissu rated it did not like it

Ordinarily, I would not waste my time reading such claptrap, except that my colleagues are assigning this book to our students and my cousin graciously gave me a copy. As an act of respect to my cousin (and rebuke to my colleagues), I hereby offer my reactions to this grotesque excuse for a “memoir.”

I should acknowledge my own professional background first, so that those inclined to dismiss my criticisms may do so without further regard. In the late 1970s and throughout most of the 1980s, I was Ordinarily, I would not waste my time reading such claptrap, except that my colleagues are assigning this book to our students and my cousin graciously gave me a copy. As an act of respect to my cousin (and rebuke to my colleagues), I hereby offer my reactions to this grotesque excuse for a “memoir.”

I should acknowledge my own professional background first, so that those inclined to dismiss my criticisms may do so without further regard. In the late 1970s and throughout most of the 1980s, I was an international business analyst for a New York-based think tank, a major international oil company, and the sixth-largest bank in the United States. In particular, I assisted my employers in assessing the political risks associated with foreign direct investments and sovereign lending. In my decade long employment, I never heard anybody express sentiments like those claimed in this book. The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Sherman Antitrust Act are stern realities for American businesspeople, who are no more likely than anybody else to commit their felonious intentions to paper or share them frankly with others, especially competitors.

I should also state that I was only able to read the first two chapters of this book before I could stomach it no more (see below). I was once before suckered into reading a wretched conspiracy tome by the taunt, “How can you claim it is wrong if you haven’t read it?” To that I now respond, “I’ll read your book if you will read one selected by me.” Curiously, I have had no takers.

Chapter 2 of the book, breathlessly entitled “In for Life,” demolishes the author’s credibility in ten brisk pages, both in terms of his personal integrity as well as his respect for the intelligence of his readers. In this chapter we first meet his femme fatale, “an attractive brunette” with “soft green eyes,” “Claudine Martin,” who corrupts the “naïve, intimidated, and bedazzled” hero of the tale with promises of being “well paid—well paid” in return for “cheating countries around the globe out of billions of dollars.” Foolishly presuming that he can rationalize his villainous behavior with “the old ‘working from inside’ justification,” Ms. Martin warns our penitent, ala la Cosa Nostra: “Don’t be foolish. Once you’re in, you can never get out. You must decide for yourself, before you get in any deeper.” Neither Ms. Marin nor our hero ever specifies the exact penalty for blabbing, but apparently it did not preclude authoring a bestselling tell-all confession with seeming impunity and without witness protection. O apostasy, where is thy sting?

Our redeemed narrator minces no words about his brief:

I would work to bankrupt the countries that received [international loans] (after they had paid MAIN and the other U.S. contractors, of course) so that they would be forever beholden to their creditors, and so they would present easy targets when we needed favors, including military bases, UN votes, or access to oil and other natural resources.

That the interests of the U.S. military-industrial-complex are identical to those of American international companies generally is asserted without benefit of factual or logical support and plenty of evidence to the contrary, notwithstanding. Mr. Perkins, on the other hand, draws the reader’s attention to banal and trivial details. For example, “Claudine and I openly discussed the deceptive nature of GNP.” Really? Is that why no economist or social scientist of any repute, much less businesspeople, rely on such data for policy- and decision-making? Or, the theft of poor countries’ wealth was “intended to create large profits for the contractors and to make a handful of wealthy and influential families in the receiving countries very happy…” Do tell. Surely it is common knowledge that private companies act in the financial interests of their owners, typically forsaking altruistic contributions toward non-owners, as a way of doing business. Stop the presses. And this: “the main reason we establish embassies around the world is to serve our own interests, which during the last half of the twentieth century meant turning the American republic into a global empire.” I do not know whose interests a nation’s foreign policy ought to serve other than its own; seeking imperial hegemony over other countries hardly sets the United States apart from other great powers. Similarly, our formerly faithless but now faithful informer reveals, “The rich get richer and the poor grow poorer.” Yawn.

Elsewhere, our intrepid confessor seems to contradict himself about the ultimate beneficiaries of his corporate crimes and misdemeanors. He writes that his job was “to encourage world leaders to become a part of a vast network that promotes U.S. commercial interests,” while also asserting that “the empowerment of international corporations and of multinational corporations such as the World Bank and the IMF” were financed primarily by the “United States and our sister empire builders in Europe” (emphasis mine).So, which is it, an American imperium or a world condominium of great military and economic powers?

Case in point is the shocking—shocking!—revelation that British and American intelligence services helped overturn the government of Iran after the Iranians “nationalized all Iranian petroleum assets” in 1951. An “outraged England,” the principal owner of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., and its special ally, the United States, set their respective intelligence agencies to the task and brought down the government of Mohammad Mossadegh, reinstalling the Shah as the “unchallenged dictator” and presumably the defender of foreign business interests in the kingdom. Lost in this and the many other recitations of this well-known and –documented covert action is the fact that the Shah did not return the oil fields to their former British masters after the coup but kept them under the Iranian National Oil Co. instead, where they remain to this day. Measured by Perkins’ criteria, the coup against Mossadegh was a cruel failure for Britain. The Shah nonetheless managed to destroy the communist-led Tudeh Party and become the United States’ main arms buyer in the Persian Gulf region, suggesting at least the possibility that other motives were at play in addition to the disposition of Iran’s oil reserves.

Mr. Perkin’s tale is not the least bit credible but certainly corroboratory of the suspicions of those predisposed to believe him; others, not so much. Perhaps the most shocking fact is that otherwise sensible social scientists would include this confession in their syllabi. Sigh.
...more

flag 19 likes · Like · see review

Jul 02, 2019 Mehrsa rated it it was amazing

Really interesting perspective of US economic "development" abroad. It reads like a memoir, but it's mostly about the ways private US companies mess with other regimes. I wish everyone would read this book.

flag 19 likes · Like · see review

Sep 10, 2018 Ali Heydari rated it it was amazing

Shelves: politics

For having a better future, everybody should read this book!

flag 18 likes · Like · see review

Oct 17, 2014 Antonio rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I don’t want to be overly negative, but Confessions of an Economic Hitman really irked me. I was only four or five pages into it before I got the overwhelming feeling of wading knee deep through bullshit. I think I might have been more tolerant if the book had been better written, but it wasn’t. It was cliched, used lame tropes, got treacly and scanned like bad spy fiction. The big problem with taking a bad John le Carre approach is that there were no stakes. “Oh no, he might expose the truth, b I don’t want to be overly negative, but Confessions of an Economic Hitman really irked me. I was only four or five pages into it before I got the overwhelming feeling of wading knee deep through bullshit. I think I might have been more tolerant if the book had been better written, but it wasn’t. It was cliched, used lame tropes, got treacly and scanned like bad spy fiction. The big problem with taking a bad John le Carre approach is that there were no stakes. “Oh no, he might expose the truth, but he’s got to go yachting…” It seems like the worst consequences he faced was boring consulting positions that paid way too much. “He’s such a rebel he’s willing to risk a comfortable sinecure!”

So, the first thing that tripped my bullshit detector is that he claimed he couldn’t get a publisher (which I believe b/c the prose was so bad) b/c of the content. This is a pretty incredible claim b/c here’s the book and if the powers that be wanted to suppress this book it would have been easy. They allegedly orchestrated the death of two Latin American presidents. If they can kill someone as high profile as Torrijos then how hard would it be to off a semi-nameless exec who goes yachting a lot. If what he’s saying is true, what is more likely from an assassination happy cabal trying to prevent the exposure of their secrets? His boat disappears at sea, no book written, maybe a page 5 obit in the local paper. Or, what he claims happens, he talks about what he’s writing but no one does anything for 15 years and then the CIA (or NSA but we’ll get into that) swings into action and discourages some publishers even though the revelation of these secrets could bring down the whole house of cards? And it’s this kind of dumb crap throughout that made this book totally unbelievable.

The next thing that really bugged me is that he takes on a fake “common man” persona and dumbs down stuff that doesn’t need to be dumbed down. He applies for the Peace Corps and is surprised to learn that Ecuador is in South America and not Africa? This guy had a first rate education (including prestigious prep schools and admission to an ivy league college) and he didn’t learn where Ecuador was? Later he’s in Panama during the 70’s, a time when latin America is on fire with revolutionary fervor, and he’s surprised to hear about refugees from Peru, Honduras, Guatemala, etc. Even though he keeps talking about how he always kept up with this area of the world b/c of his love of Ecuador? You couldn’t turn around in the 70s and 80s without hearing about unrest somewhere in Latin America and how the US or CIA was involved. Why would he cope this attitude? Passages like these felt condescending. I think the condescension gives a clue to the rest of the book. He has so little respect for the reader’s intelligence that he thinks he can pass off even the most unbelievable stories.

My biggest beef is that he makes these insinuations that he worked indirectly for the NSA, but he has no idea of what the NSA does. The NSA and CIA aren’t interchangeable organizations. The NSA is responsible for things like code breaking, communication monitoring and intercepts. The CIA is responsible for infiltration, and the type of subversion he’s talking about in this book. There’s tons of stuff available from the Church Committee that lays out exactly what kinds of illegal activities these two organizations were up to in the time period he’s talking about. He could have figured this out with about ten minutes of googling and some basic research. So, allegedly he’s working as an “EHS” for the NSA which doesn’t do anything like faking economic reports to score IMF money. That’s more along the lines of something the CIA would do. The
NSA do lots of terrible and illegal things, but before 9/11 they didn’t do stuff like this. So, he can’t get his basic intelligence agencies right. This was the point in the book where I almost put it down. I decided to struggle through the rest of it to find out why it was so popular, but it only got worse.

He does the common and racist cliche of “brown people are so wise and spiritual”. He talks about how much the people of the Amazon can teach us. He talks about how he’s the only person in his team to get to know the local Indonesians. He keeps bringing up how he likes to learn the local culture. But then there’s the problem with pretending he’s totally oblivious to what’s going on in the rest of South America when he’s in Panama. In Iran he tells a story about bedouins in Iran (Bedouins are Arab, not Persian.) and camel trails throughout the country (camels aren’t common in Iran, they’re mostly in the southwest corner that abuts Iraq and in the far east). If he knew the basics about these areas he wouldn’t lapse into these cliched tropes. Talk to a Persian, they’re least favorite thing in the world is to be confused with Arabs.

On top of all this he can’t even paint a coherent picture of the conspiracy he’s “exposing.” He claims the US can make all these loans to foreign countries b/c we have a fiat currency, but then immediately goes on to explain why having a fiat currency with a large outstanding debt is a danger. So, these genius created a master plan to loan money that will never be repaid by exposing the US to a debt crisis that will seriously harm, if not destroy, them in the future? This is the dumbest conspiracy ever.

And so we get to my biggest problem with this book. The CIA, the NSA, foreign development, and corporate corruption in the world governments, not just the US, is a serious problem. This kind of dumb conspiracy theory crap makes criticisms of these problems easy to dismiss as quackery. It also delays people from learning about the actual problems.

Do government contractors fluff their estimates and expenses and behave in all sorts of horrific and illegal ways? Yes, just look at Dynacorp’s child prostitution problems and KBR and Halliburton’s war profiteering. But it’s not a big conspiracy, that’s what you get for political contributions. Snowden has exposed the NSA’s data collection, lots of journalists are covering the drone war. These aren’t closely guarded secrets that have remained hidden for the past 50 years. There’s too much corporate influence in government. We have a lot of really bad foreign policy. Just look at how the TPP is being negotiated right now. It’s not a secret conspiracy. Almost all this stuff has been front page news for a while.

The problem isn’t a secret cabal. It’s getting elected officials to do anything about it. This guy didn’t help by misleading well intentioned people and making them sound like kooks. ...more

flag 15 likes · Like · see review

Jul 07, 2011 Amy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: memoir

This book got 5 stars because it is highly disturbing and everyone especially Americans should read this book. Perkins writes his true story of what he did when he was an economic hit man. The basic gist is that he went to other countries promising the growth of their economy if they contracted engineers and workers from the States to install infrastructures such as electricity and running water. It looks like a great idea to the government because they are "helping" their people by creating a b ...more

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

Oct 11, 2010 Erik Graff rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Americans

Recommended to Erik by: Kristian Buschmann

Shelves: biography

The author of this book, John M. Perkins (not the same person as the Christian anti-racism activist), devoted the early part of his career to the planned exploitation of Third World economies on behalf of the interests of corporations, primarily American. He represents himself as one of many and his activities as being wholesale. Now, presumably repentent, he has become an advocate of traditional cultures worldwide.

Reading his story has reminded me of a young friend I have. Recently returned fro ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Sep 17, 2007 Nathan rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Shoppers.

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

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

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Mar 15, 2007 sonia rated it it was ok

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's almost an ironic ro ...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Mar 01, 2009 Thamrong rated it liked it

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

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Mar 08, 2016 ☘Misericordia☘ ~ The Serendipity Aegis ~ ⚡ϟ⚡ϟ⚡⛈ ✺❂❤❣ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, propaganda

An interesting take on international consulting industry. So, it makes sense in a sort of a roundabout way: 'If somebody lights the stars, that means that somebody needs it'.

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Mar 08, 2018 Mario the lone bookwolf (semi reviewing hiatus ) rated it really liked it

Shelves: 0-social-criticism, perkins-john

From Developing Countries into Debt Driving Saul to Philanthropic Paul.

Please note that I put the original German text at the end of this review. Just if you might be interested.

What a career the man has laid down, someone has to imitate him first. By getting married, he comes into position, at a very young age, to assist in building up the structures to destabilize the economy of countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, and to move up rapidly. He does not shy away from believing only stat From Developing Countries into Debt Driving Saul to Philanthropic Paul.

Please note that I put the original German text at the end of this review. Just if you might be interested.

What a career the man has laid down, someone has to imitate him first. By getting married, he comes into position, at a very young age, to assist in building up the structures to destabilize the economy of countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, and to move up rapidly. He does not shy away from believing only statistics that he has falsified in the interests of the client and can justifiably be considered as one of the birth assistants of recent semi-legal white-collar crime.
To the point where his conscience surpasses him, and he becomes a dedicated political activist, which costs him the impeccable nimbus of his American clients and because of the devastation he has done the discreetly hypocritical effect. However, still around worlds better than the spearhead of predatory capitalism to direct and train.
The tactics are terrifyingly simple and quickly explained. Billions of credits are offered to emerging countries, although they may be invested in meaningful infrastructural measures, this rarely happens. Somewhat, large-scale projects such as dams, power plants, heavy industry, access roads and logistics capacities for the exploitation of raw materials, including the awarding of contracts to American and European consortiums, are being pushed forward.
It should be noted, however, that these are credit spreads which should never be given to states from the perspective of a realistic repayment option. Moreover, the loan installments, the term or even the loan interest after signing the contracts to change one or the other comma, belongs to the product portfolio of men and women, let's put it polemically, business killers.
Fails a state now desperate for credit, debt cuts or national bankruptcy puffing on the hook, in his desperation to hold on to any straw, comes the generous offer. One could merely privatize and save to death the entire infrastructure, water, electricity, social services, healthcare or take the whole of natural resources at dumping prices for debt repayment. No problem, let's talk.
John Perkins still looks like an excellent, glittering, distinguished gentleman compared to the alternatives that can be offered... For who comes when the provided billion credits are scandalously rejected? Those, as he calls them, jackals, the specialists washed with all the finesse of asymmetric warfare and incitement tactics. Among other things, it was to start a coup, to bring demagogues and dictators to power and annoying democratically legitimized, to make matters worse perhaps even from the indigenous population originating supporters to catch the right flight.
Also, if that does not help, they quickly declare war and march in. Regardless of how many economically motivated battles have taken place over the past few decades, let everyone get a picture of themselves, opinions differ widely, but a few dozens will.
The entire history of the second half of the twentieth century and beyond, including the stories of one John Perkins, is to be viewed under a different light, subtly deviating from official historiography. Sometimes his explanations of events are much more coherent, logical and understandable than other well-founded and scholarly essays on the subject such as: "These are communists, terrorists, TINA, etc.!"

Vom Entwicklungsländer in Schulden treibenden Saulus zum philanthropischen Paulus.

Was für eine Karriere der Mann hingelegt hat, muss ihm erst mal jemand nachmachen. Durch gutes Einheiraten gelangt er in recht jungen Jahren in die Position, beim Aufbau der Strukturen zur Destabilisierung der Wirtschaft von Ländern in Afrika, Lateinamerika und Asien mitzuwirken und rasch aufzusteigen. Er scheut nicht davor zurück, nur Statistiken, die er selbst im Sinne des Auftraggebers gefälscht hat, Glauben zu schenken und kann mit Fug und Recht als einer der Geburtshelfer der modernen halblegalen Wirtschaftskriminalität gelten.
Bis zu dem Punkt an dem ihn sein Gewissen überkommt und er zum engagierten Politaktivisten wird, was ihm zwar den einwandfreien Nimbus bei seinen amerikanischen Auftraggebern kostet und angesichts der Verheerungen, die er angerichtet hat, dezent scheinheilig wirkt. Aber immer noch um Welten besser ist als weiter die Speerspitze des Raubtierkapitalismus zu dirigieren und auszubilden.
Die Taktik ist erschreckend simpel und schnell erklärt. Armen Ländern werden Milliardenkredite angeboten, wobei es auch aus Versehen vorkommen kann, dass diese in sinnvolle infrastrukturelle Maßnahmen investiert werden, was aber selten passiert. Viel eher werden Großprojekte wie Staudämme, Kraftwerke, Schwerindustrie, Erschließungsstraßen und Logistikkapazitäten zur Ausbeutung der Rohstoffe samt der Vergabe von Aufträgen an amerikanische und europäische Firmenkonsortien forciert.
Wohlgemerkt in Kreditgrößenordungen, die den Staaten unter dem Gesichtspunkt einer realistischen Rückzahlungsmöglichkeit niemals vergeben werden dürften. Und die Kreditraten, die Laufzeit oder überhaupt gleich die Kreditzinsen nach Unterzeichung der Verträge mal flugs um das eine oder andere Komma zu modifizieren, gehört zum Produktportfolio der Herren und Damen, formulieren wir es polemisch, Wirtschaftskilller. Zappelt ein Staat nun verzweifelt nach Kreditaufschub, Schuldenschnitt oder Staatsbankrott schnaufend am Haken, um sich in seiner Verzweiflung noch an irgendeinem Strohhalm festhalten zu können, kommt das generöse Angebot. Man könne doch die gesamte Infrastruktur, Wasser, Strom, Sozialleistungen, Gesundheitswesen schlichtweg privatisieren und zu Tode sparen oder die gesamten natürlichen Ressourcen zu Dumpingpreisen zur Schuldentilgung hernehmen. Alles kein Problem, die lassen mit sich reden.
Wobei John Perkins im Vergleich zu den Alternativen, die geboten werden können, noch wie ein feiner, mit Glacehandschuhen agierender, distinguierter Gentleman wirkt. Denn wer kommt, wenn die angebotenen Milliardenkredite skandalöserweise abgelehnt werden? Die, wie er sie nennt, Schakale, die mit allen Finessen der asymmetrischen Kriegsführung und Verhetzungstaktik gewaschenen Spezialisten. Unter anderem darin, einen Putsch anzuzetteln, Demagogen und Diktatoren an die Macht zu bringen und lästige demokratisch legitimierte, zu allem Überfluss vielleicht auch noch aus der indigenen Bevölkerung stammende Staatsüberhäupter, den richtigen Flug erwischen zu lassen.
Und wenn auch das nichts hilft, erklärt man flugs den Krieg und marschiert ein. Darüber, wie viele wirtschaftlich motivierte Kriege in den letzten Jahrzehnten stattgefunden haben, möge sich jeder selbst ein Bild machen, die Meinung divergiert diesbezüglich stark, ein paar Dutzend werden es aber doch gewesen sein.
Die gesamte Geschichte der zweiten Hälfte des 20 Jahrhunderts und darüber hinaus ist unter Einbeziehung der Erzählungen eines John Perkins unter einem anderen, dezent von der offiziellen Geschichtsschreibung abweichenden, Licht zu betrachten. Mitunter sind seine Erklärungen für Ereignisse wesentlich schlüssiger, logischer und nachvollziehbarer als andere wohlfundierte und wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen zu dem Thema wie: „ Das sind Kommunisten, Terroristen, TINA, usw.!“ ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Oct 17, 2008 Lesandre rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: everybody who keeps associating growth and consumption with progress and elevation of the LDCs

Recommended to Lesandre by: film Zeitgeist: Addendum

Disconcerting, to say the least. It seems there is hardly anything, as an American, I own or acquire that doesn't have the blood of hundreds and thousands upon it. Thank goodness somebody is telling this story. I've always suspected something of the sort, but never understood its specific mechanisms.

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Jan 25, 2010 Adam rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Adam by: Alex Hiatt, Samn Johnson, Blase Masserant, many others

Shelves: non-fiction, wealth-and-power-inequality, history, the-problem-of-civilization, american-imperialism, auto-biography

I find it kind of surprising and disappointing that so many of the reviewers here have rated the book so poorly, and more importantly that they have done so not only for purely legitimate reasons (that they think Perkins is a poor writer; I disagree, but if they think so, they ought to rate accordingly) but because they accuse him of being a "conspiracy theorist." Perkins attempts to dispel this notion at every turn:

"Some would blame our current problems on an organized conspiracy. I wish it we I find it kind of surprising and disappointing that so many of the reviewers here have rated the book so poorly, and more importantly that they have done so not only for purely legitimate reasons (that they think Perkins is a poor writer; I disagree, but if they think so, they ought to rate accordingly) but because they accuse him of being a "conspiracy theorist." Perkins attempts to dispel this notion at every turn:

"Some would blame our current problems on an organized conspiracy. I wish it were so simple. Members of a conspiracy can be rooted out and brought to justice. This system, however, is fueled by something far more dangerous than conspiracy. It is driven not by a small band of men but by a concept that has become accepted as gospel: the idea that all economic growth benefits humankind and that the greater the growth, the more widespread the benefits. This belief also has a corollary: that those people who excel at stoking the fires of economic growth should be exalted and rewarded, while those born at the fringes are available for exploitation."

And this is why Perkins' book is important: it explains, in terms more unwavering and far-reaching than any author I've encountered (including Chomsky) the way the world works. (This is another problem some reviewers cite: that he overstates the extent the forces he cites really affect things.) Perkins explains that the Neo-liberal economics that justify globalization bear the same relation to the way economics really work that US government propaganda bears to the real reasons they are in Iraq (reasons Perkins reveals perhaps more clearly than anyone I've read, again including Chomsky). Perkins rehearses overtly many of the reasons and methods corporations use to increase their profits. These usually include exerting their influence on the government to earn or create contracts that funnel tax money into their own pockets - for example, foreign aid, or military spending.

The aspect treated in Perkins' book is US (and not only US, of course) foreign policy as it is used to open and maintain markets in third-world countries, markets that allow corporations to strip the land of its wealth without losing profits to fairly treating the locals or worrying about the local environment. To this end, the US government and its associates in the World Bank and IMF spend billions of dollars supporting friendly dictators and ousting or destabilizing and discrediting defiant governments (in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Guatemala, Panama, Haiti, Colombia, etc).

Defiant governments of course are not always ideal themselves - though sometimes good exposes over emphasize a good guy-bad guy dynamic, it is really only about profits. As long as a foreign government lets corporations make money, they will be tolerated. No matter how brutal they are. If they try to defy the corporations, no matter whether for the end of increasing the quality of life of their citizens or for their own gain (Chavez vs. Iraq), they will be opposed, discredited, undermined, or deposed by the US government.

In Perkins' account, corporations are not evil. They merely do whatever they need to maximize profits. And of course, that rarely includes fairly compensating workers or spending millions to reduce environmental impact. It often includes lobbying the government to reduce taxes and impose protectionist policies, spend more money on weapons, look the other way on environmental offenses, forge devastating "free trade" agreements with countries with cheap labor markets, and, when necessary, invade a country to maintain access to natural resources.

Read Confessions if you are interested to understand what is really going on in the world and why, if you want to know why foreign aid doesn't seem to accomplish anything. Read it if you want to know the truth.

P.S. Confessions is particularly relevant today, as it will show you the true dynamics of Haiti's situation. The governments providing aid are by no means altruistic, and they have profits, rather than the good of the Haitian people at heart. This is why aid efforts will ultimately result in Haiti's failure to recover from the earthquake and a slide into even more abject poverty. ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Aug 10, 2008 Lars Guthrie rated it really liked it

I didn't want to like "Confessions," nor Perkins. It bothers me when people point to nefarious and secret conspiracies engineered by masterminds who control our lives; it means we have no responsibility or power. It bothers me when people "confess" to past crimes and urge reform when it works to their reputation and remuneration. But I wanted to honor a coworker's recommendation and loan of the book, so I gave Perkins a chance. I was engrossed and even entranced by his facility with words and na ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

May 07, 2011 Grace Tjan rated it it was ok

Recommended to Grace Tjan by: Brian

Shelves: 2011, general-non-fiction

To Brian

Thanks for sending me this book: definitely a food for thought, although I don't necessarily agree with it 100%.

WARNING: This review is opinionated, political, long and probably somewhat naive because of my rudimentary understanding of international economics, CIA covert operations, and the effect of seductive blondes on susceptible males.

It took me quite a while to finish this book. I’m familiar with the gist of the argument, since I’ve read excerpts of it in the Indonesian media before ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 25, 2011 Alanoud rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Ok, so as I finished reading this book, I can say I successfully landed on 3 main conclusions!

Yet, before I share them, let me brief you on what this book talks about. Interestingly enough and as the title suggests, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is a real-life story of a person who played a role in reinforcing and mushrooming the system of marching into a global empire of America. Nonetheless, trapped in consciousness, guilt and willingness to save the next generations-as he puts it-Perkins ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Jul 12, 2013 Darran Mclaughlin rated it really liked it

Shelves: economics, american, politics, travel, biography, espionage, thriller

John Perkins lifts the lid on the workings of what I am convinced is the American Empire. Perkins worked as an 'Economic Hit Man' for years pursuing the coordinated interests of the American State and Corporate sector. This involved visiting 3rd world countries, performing an inflated economic assessment of their future growth prospects, persuading them to take out enormous loans they will never be able to afford to repay to pay American companies to build massive infrastructure projects that wo ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 12, 2009 Marcus rated it really liked it

This book has a story everyone should know, even if it's not something everyone must read. It chronicles the exploitation of politically poor and oil-rich nations by economist hired by private firms working at the behest of the NSA to secure America's international sovereignty. The reality is that if these nations were organized, as OPEC was in the seventies, they could bring the first world to its knees. To prevent that from happening, economists are sent to create optimistic-biased forecasts t ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Nov 04, 2011 fourtriplezed rated it did not like it

Shelves: my-non-fiction

Lightweight and dull.

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 18, 2020 Anno Nomius rated it really liked it

I don't normally read biographies however this one was different. The author is interesting as he is an economic hit man. I don't want to give too much away however this is a story of US policies abroad fueled by business interest of a select few. Typically for profit, typically for energy (oil) and major infrastructure construction. The author takes you on a journey from Panama to Indonesia to the middle east. You learn why we look the other way with anything involving Saudi Arabia. You learn a ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jun 03, 2013 Rebecca rated it did not like it

If nothing else this book is a time line of geopolitical/military events that the US was involved with from the 70s through the 2000s.

It was a basic review of the US in Indonesia, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Iran, Saudi and Iraq. It was not an 'eye opener', nor was it sourced very well. His references were journalists - the same journalists that he links to the corporatacracy he so loathes (and blames).

The author illuminates the underground world of the Economic Hit Men that were basically recr If nothing else this book is a time line of geopolitical/military events that the US was involved with from the 70s through the 2000s.

It was a basic review of the US in Indonesia, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Iran, Saudi and Iraq. It was not an 'eye opener', nor was it sourced very well. His references were journalists - the same journalists that he links to the corporatacracy he so loathes (and blames).

The author illuminates the underground world of the Economic Hit Men that were basically recruited by the NSA to economically infiltrate underdeveloped nations, get them hooked on our loans and keep them hooked, so that the US could 'call on their pound of flesh' - his favorite term - whenever we needed it. This was by no means hard to believe. But the part that was so damn annoying was his droning on about his 'guilt' about the whole thing. For. Thirty. Years. The man loved money, first class travel, ladies and bonuses too much to give up on the horrible behavior he was having such a hard time living with....while sailing on his boat in the British Virgin Islands.

Of course, if you were to believe him, he was also Mr. Popular. In all of the nations he worked in, he was befriended by someone, a local, an insider, someone...they would share with him their struggles - because they trusted him - and he would listen, feeling even more guilty, but putting the plan into action. The plan, to manipulate all of these nations, primarily the indigenous populations whose homes were being lost to land devastation by the large oil companies that were moving in.

He then went on an on about how the average American just couldn't understand it. It was too complex to know that the shit that was going on in South America was not on the up and up. Right. Sure, the NYTimes, LATimes and Washington Post readers are all obtuse Americans that just took the geopolitical and military movements of the US Government at face value. Does everyone pay attention, certainly not, but clearly people in the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s were capable of questioning (and many did) the moves of our nation.

And to top it off, not only did he call us stupid for the first 200 pages, he decided to become a complete and utter raging self righteous asshole for the last 20. He lectured the reader about how they basically need to pick up the slack and fix this problem by improving their way of life, becoming green and taking care of the environment. Excuse me? His intermittent apology throughout was vapid, to say the least, but the closing of the book clearly illustrated the mans struggle with reality.

The real kicker - the corporatacracy that he so loathes, yet helped to build - is all of us. He says, on page 217: "It would be great if we could just blame it on a conspiracy, but we cannot. The empire depends on the efficacy of big banks, corporations, and governments - the corporatacracy - but it is not a conspiracy. The corporatacracy is ourselves - we make it happen - which, of course is why most of us find it difficult to stand up and oppose it."

What is this, so new aged mumbo jumbo about how we are to better ourselves? Is he some shaman that tells it like it is, gives us the tough dose of medicine and then wipes his hand of any involvement? It gets better, on page 219, I believe he is comparing himself to Paul Revere when he says: "I thought again of that other man, that lone rider galloping through the dark New England countryside, shouting out his warning." What? What? I guess it's a good thing Revere didn't wait 30 years to warn the patriots.

This man is delusional, not in his assessment of how the US 'supposedly' has acted; but in his culpability. He's all of a sudden contrite and confessional and boom - he's our savior. He even goes on to write: "Now it's your turn. You need to make your own confession."

The author needs to get off his high horse. Some of us, practically all of us, had nothing do with the crap HE perpetuated on millions of indigenous peoples in the name of corporate oil profits.

...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Underground Knowl...: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man	34	432	Jul 17, 2020 03:31AM
Financial Order 2020	1	4	Feb 18, 2019 08:13AM
I love this book	12	132	Oct 08, 2017 02:13PM
Truth or exaggeration?...	14	225	Jul 26, 2017 03:30AM
........	1	10	Jun 03, 2015 04:57AM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Videos About This Book

The birth of an Economic hit man -Arabic subtitles ولادة القاتل الاقتصادي

2 comments

Add a comment

Genres

Nonfiction

850 users

Economics

569 users

Politics

442 users

History

276 users

Biography

165 users

Business

147 users

Autobiography > Memoir

103 users

Economics > Finance

50 users

Biography > Autobiography

33 users

Pseudoscience > Conspiracy Theories

23 users

See top shelves…

About John Perkins

John Perkins

849 followers

John Perkins is an activist and author. As a former chief economist at Boston strategic-consulting firm Chas. T. Main, Perkins says that he was an "economic hit man" for 10 years, helping U.S. intelligence agencies and multinational corporations cajole and blackmail foreign leaders into serving U.S. foreign policy and awarding lucrative contracts to American business.

However, after several years s ...more

Books by John Perkins

The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals & the Truth about Global Corruption

Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded & What We Need to Do to Save Them

Shapeshifting: Techniques for Global and Personal Transformation

The World Is As You Dream It: Teachings from the Amazon and Andes

More…

36 New Memoirs to Read Now

Anne Lamott, the beloved writer of memoirs including Bird by Bird and Traveling Mercies, once said, “You own everything that happened to you....

Trivia About Confessions of an...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from Confessions of an...

“The United States spends over $87 billion conducting a war in Iraq while the United Nations estimates that for less than half that amount we could provide clean water, adequate diets, sanitations services and basic education to every person on the planet. And we wonder why terrorists attack us.” — 107 likes

“The choices we make within the boundaries of the twists of fate determines who we are” — 45 likes

More quotes…