By Saeed Mashaal Bhatti (MPhil Sociology)
JUSTIFICATIONS FOR THE
BOOK
1. By understanding our past mistakes
we will be able to take advantage of our future opportunities.
2. For the first time in history, one
nation has the ability, the money, and the power to change all this, the United
States of America.
3. 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.
4. Motivation from her only child
Jessica
HIGHLIGHTS
1. “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” is
the autobiography of John Perkins. It tells of how he spent the 1970s and
80s as a self-proclaimed “Economic Hitman”. He recounts what led him to
his position and then his years of service to the Main consulting company in
Boston. He contends that his position for these many years was to go into
third-world countries (only if they have natural resources to exploit) and
recommend them for large loans from the World Bank for infrastructure
improvements. The condition on the loans is that American companies
(especially those contracted by Main) be hired to do the work. In this
way, the countries become indebted to the U.S. even though all the money has
gone into the hands of American companies. This system, he contends,
makes the few in power of these countries rich, further impoverishes the rest
of the populace and enslaves the nation to the American “corporatocracy”.
This tale of corruption was disturbing though not entirely shocking. The
shocking part is his claim that he knew full-well what he was guilty of yet he
continued to do it for years.
2. John Perkins traveled all over the
world--Indonesia, Panama, Ecuador, Columbia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, he tells the
gripping tale of the years he spent working for an international consulting
firm where his job was to convince underdeveloped countries to accept enormous
loans, much bigger than they really needed, for infrastructure development--and
to make sure that the development projects were contracted to U. S.
multinationals. Once these countries were saddled with huge debts, the American
government and the international aid agencies allied with it were able, by
dictating repayment terms, to essentially control their economies.
3. Perkins' story illuminates just how
far economic hit men were willing to go, and unveils the real causes of some of
the most dramatic developments in recent history, he reveals the hidden
mechanics of imperial control behind such major international events as the
fall of the Shah, the death of Panamanian president Omar Torrijos, and the
invasions of Panama and Iraq, as well as providing an inside view of the
corrupt U.S.-Saudi Arabian relationship
4. Perkins gets it mostly right when
he describes the system of “tied” foreign aid, in which recipient countries are
obligated to spend the money they receive on goods and services from the donor
country.
CONCLUSIONS
1. Confessions of an Economic Hit
Man is very interesting and it does stir up thoughts about the morality of
corporations and the concerns of people in developing countries, maybe even thoughts
about how to save the world.
2. The only redeeming quality about
this book is that it gives some solid and reasonable explanation to the
complaints about globalization voiced by the stinky hippies and ultra left in
America. Basically, explaining that first world countries engage in predatory
lending to developing nations.
CRITICISM
1. A confession is that it was
lacking a moral. Perkins more or less blamed his own self-admitted muted
conscience on his upbringing. He said that it twisted him, and that love
of money allowed him to take the job. However, he really never says that
what he did was openly wrong or immoral. Though if pressed, he would probably
admit that he was wrong.
2. He became a polemic against the
Republican Party and oil companies. He praised the Carter administration,
and then accused Reagan of being concerned mostly about the interests of the
“corporatocracy”. The harshest criticism was saved for George H.W. Bush
whom he claimed was a leader in the corruption. He even attacks George W.
Bush, but interestingly enough makes no mention whatsoever of the Clinton
administration. This sort of gives away his agenda.
3. He claims that the world is
corrupt at this very deep level but doesn’t seem to think it fixable. In
fact, he says he sold his startup energy company to Ashland Oil.
Ultimately the book projects a sense of hopelessness.
