The Futures Foundation

"Economic hit men are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars.  Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex and murder."

Somebody told me years ago not to miss this book, but it took a delay at Canberra airport to make it happen.  Now I can’t believe I waited so long.   I finished it with the conviction that it should be required reading for every voting-age citizen in any democracy – and part of every high school and university curriculum.

John Perkins was a disgruntled and frustrated graduate who joined the National Security Agency in the US to avoid being sent to the Vietnam War.   From there he joined the Peace Corps, and was soon recruited by a major corporation, at that time called Chas T. Main Inc., and trained as an “economic hit man”.  His job, which clearly involved working for the US government alongside his official day job, was to give misleading economic information to the governments of developing countries, to persuade them to commit to unaffordable loans for massive infrastructure projects to be delivered by US corporations, and to ensure that the consequent economic catastrophes would render them vulnerable to US demands.

There’s no need for another full review.   A quick google offers a host of them (two samples below), plus references like the factual backing from the established publishing house, Berret Koehler, who released the book in 2004 (http://www.economichitman.com).   It has since been released in paperback by Random House around the world. 

That same googling will also connect you with the fascinating “want to know” site, which offers “reliable, verifiable information on major cover-ups and a call to work together for the good of all”  (www.wanttoknow.info/johnperkinseconomichitman).  

What makes John Perkins’ story so powerful?  It may be its terrible logic.  Or that it clearly confirms the misgivings of so many of us have had about American foreign policy in recent times.   Whatever it is, the book throws the spotlight on the cynical intentions of much of the west’s – well, America’s – global “good works”.  It’s riveting stuff for anyone with an interest in the theory and realities of global governance.

And there’s not much risk of worshipping the story’s “hero”.  Perkins admits that he began to understand exactly what he was doing quite early in his career, but for all the usual reasons he continued to take the money and deliver the goods.   That’s a bit depressing, but maybe we need to remind ourselves that practical ethics can be a luxury for many of us as we make our journey through life.  On the other hand, the power of what Perkins does reveal at last cannot be ignored.  

While we may not choose this man to lead us on our journey to enlightenment (would y’believe that’s the business he’s in now?), the content of his biographical book is a must-read for every citizen of the world.

Jan Lee Martin

 Confessions of a professional liar

 “In Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins gives us a good insight into everything wrong with capitalism, and in doing so shows us an example of the kind of person who makes it all wrong. “More than 100 years ago, philosopher William James asked us to consider a society in which millions were kept permanently happy on the one simple condition that a certain lost soul on the far‑off edge of things should lead a life of lonely torture. 

‘“What except a specifical and independent sort of emotion can it be which would make us immediately feel, even though an impulse arose within us to clutch at the happiness so offered, how hideous a thing would be its enjoyment when deliberately accepted as the fruit of such a bargain.’ 

“A more hideous and less philosophical suggestion is put forth in John Perkins’ best selling treatise on post WWII America, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. “Perkins portrays a world where a few are kept permanently happy on the one simple condition that millions of souls lead lives of economic misery and exploitation, through a system in which religious groups, corporations and U.S. policy converge wherever poor nations have resources we want.”  http://www.putnampit.com/reviews/hitman2.htm     

“His role, he was told, would be to use his understanding of economics to ‘justify huge international loans’ that would send billions of dollars sluicing back to companies like MAIN, but also Bechtel, Halliburton, Stone & Webster, and Brown & Root. His other role would be to ensure that these economies were bankrupted after receiving these loans so that they would ‘be forever beholden to their creditors, and so they would present easy targets when we needed favours, including military bases, UN votes, or access to oil and other natural resources’”. http://www.globalecho.org/articles.php  

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, (2004, San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, $24.95).