Product Description

As an EHM in the '60s and '70s, covertly recruited by the US National Security Agency, John Perkins helped further American imperial interests in countries such as Ecuador, Panama, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. He tried to write this book four times but was threatened or bribed each time to halt. The events of 9/11 - a direct result of the activities of EHMs in the 1970s - finally forced him to confront the role he played himself, and to reveal the truth to the rest of the world. "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" has become a word-of-mouth bestseller in the US. It has been called the book that finally 'connects the dots, the book that best explains what is really going on in the world'. Once you've read it you will find yourself recommending it to everyone you know. It can truly change the way you view the world. As one US reader writes: 'I feel that this is not just a book - it is an event, with powerful cultural and political ramifications. This book turns our understanding of history upside down, and I implore you to read it as soon as you possibly can. The more people who are aware, the more easily change can brought about.' Following his EHM work, Perkins founded Independent Power Systems, an alternative energy provider that successfully changed the US utility industry. He is now president of Dream Change Coalition, a nonprofit organization working with Amazonian and other indigenous people to help preserve their environments and cultures. 'As I travel around the world, I find that people know that their country just received a billion-dollar loan, for example, from the World Bank and that American corporations are there benefiting from the loan, but that their own lives are getting worse,' he says.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4112 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
" 'Perkins has ripped open the belly of the financial buccaneers from his unique place on the inside. Here are the real-life details - nasty, manipulative, plain evil - of international corporate skullduggery spun into a tale rivaling the darkest espionage thriller.' - Greg Palast, author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy"

Metro
"Intriguing...provides ammunition for the case against globalisation."

The Guardian Weekend
"In toe-curling detail, the fictional exploits of the people we imagine to work as undercover agents turn your stomach."

Customer Reviews

Fact or fiction, the message deserves serious attention
Brilliant, in an odd kind of way! The paradox of this book is that it often reads like an unbelievable and corny spy thriller, while simultaneously dealing with probably the most real and important issues facing humanity and the planet today. I am sure the author is well aware of this - a more academic, or more "credible" account would have reached far fewer people. Regardless of how much artistic license John Perkins may have used, the essence of this book has a sobering ring of truth about it.

Perkins takes us through his autobiographical account of life as an economic hit-man or EHM. "We are an elite group of men and women who utilize financial organizations to foment conditions that make other nations subservient to the corporatocracy running our biggest corporations, our government, and our banks." From 1971 to 1980, this found him working in developing countries (eg. Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Panama), subtley and not-so-subtley building the global American Empire. The real-life politics is interesting.

Perkins eventually quit his job, finally finding the greed and hypocrisy too difficult to deal with. This was partly a result of getting to know the natives of each country he worked in and his social life makes entertaining reading. Although he left the EHM job in 1980, it took the events of September 11th 2001 to finally inspire him to come completely clean and publish this book.

The epilogue is a nice little wake-up call in itself.

over 650 reviews!
On the US Amazon site there are over 650 reviews of this book! Do you have any idea how unusual that is?!

Many books have been written about the US victimisation of third world countries (for facts, read books like Blackwater, No Logo, Shock Doctrine, The New Nuclear Danger). This one, unusually, is an insider's perspective and a fascinating look behind the scenes, if you ignore the retrospective moralising about the use of U.S. aid policy to manipulate foreign countries.

However, while it's shocking, feasible, readable and enjoyable... it's probably not honest. For decades the author acquired wealth and status by lying, stealing, cheating - and must have been aware of the enormous human misery he was helping to create. His life has certainly been shown in a romanticised light and it's most likely that the book is deeply economical with the truth. As one reviewer points out: all his mistakes in life are the fault of others (his parents, school, wives, employer,etc.) and he stayed with this evil organisation for decades, paid very well indeed. Still, he has spoken out...but is it for still more financial benefit?

What's your take on such a compromised way of life? We've all lied, cheated and played victim at some time or another, although most of us not nearly to this extent. At what point does each of us claim the right to stone this sinner?

My final take: America doesn't just do this stuff to third-world countries. Thom Hartmann's book Screwed, for instance, details the "covert war conservatives and corporations are waging against America's middle class". (America's poor have already long been screwed, of course - it is well known that the gap between poor and rich continues to widen in the US and I have never forgotten a TV documentary showing a poor black family in the deep south reduced to slicing canned dog food to use as the "meat" in their sandwiches - better than the starving in Africa, yes, but still disgusting to me, anyway, particularly since I am aware that condemned meat is a major ingredient of dog and cat food.) But - even as we point the finger at these wicked and greedy "others" - more of our fingers point back to us...

A very easy to read book about a very difficult dilemma
This book is so eager to unmask the imperial project of the last 35 years that it has prompted USINFO.STATE.GOV to put up a page about it in its 'Identifying Misinformation archive'. So far, so good.

Much of what the book says about the shared imperial aspirations of state and business flows logically, with a capitalist eye for self-interest, profit and market dominance. Therefore, the author's frequent early references to feeling guilty about his deeds does tend to sensationalize his role in an approach to money-making which is still current - in occupied Iraq, for example.

For me, the book really comes alive when Perkins recounts the sights, sounds and smells of Indonesia - his first destination as an economic hit man. Perkins writes very well here and draws you into his world. I actually finished the 225 page story in a day, but frequent breaks in the narrative do break its intimacy. That said, this book is full of little-reported insights, personalities and acts from history which crystallize a truth. Government, military and intelligence services serve the interests of big business and profit.

Who benefits from this deceit? Well, there in lies the dilemma; arguably most Western citizens... through cheap oil.

'For every $100 of crude taken out of the Ecuadorian rain forests, the oil companies receive $75. Of the remaining $25, three-quarters must go to paying off the foreign debt. Most of the remainder covers military and other government expenses - which leaves about $2.50 for healfth, education and prgrams aimed at helping the poor.'

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man