Book Review: The Confession of the Economic Hitman by John Perkins

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SUMMARY

The author of the book John Perkins belongs to a middle-class family in the U.S and had ambitions to achieve a good standard of life, unlike his parents. He worked for the UN Peace Corps in Ecuador and was later recruited by NSA (National Security Agency) after a series of tough tests including psychological, polygraph and others. Interestingly he was not an employee of the NSA or any other U.S government body as a matter of fact but he was offered a job as an economist in one of the major U.S engineering / construction / consulting firms he named it MAIN. John wrote that he was trained by a lady named Claudine with a fair warning that once he is in the game, he is in for Life.

The very first task of John as an Economic Hitman (EHM) was in Indonesia in 1971. He had to forecast the economic growth of Indonesia for the next 25 years and estimate the use of electricity in future. The forecast was done so a billion-dollar loan, by world gigantic financial institutes like World Bank, IMF, Asian Development Bank, or USAID, is justified for large scale electrical power generation and distribution system. While working on this task in Indonesia, John realizes that his superiors want the results that justify the loan and promise a good return from the project that will repay the loan amount. John admits that he made an exaggeration in the economic forecast and did what was the demand of his bosses.

John wrote that his work with MAIN gave him the opportunity to meet world leaders and make local friends in different countries such as Iran, Indonesia, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Venezuela, Panama, and others. The author wrote these so-called loans and Aid programs are designed in a very subtle way to bankrupt the borrowing countries. The loan providing agency/organization knows that how it works. All the big banks, corporations, constructions and engineering companies are part of a giant corporatocracy. The prime goal of this corporatocracy is to make the U.S a modern global empire and protects its interests. When these borrowing countries are at the brink of bankruptcy, U.S forced them to follow its dictation and align their policy with the best interest of the U.S.

John argues that EHM’s are not the only players in the modern-day global empire but there are people with ruthless heats who are willing to kills if they have to and John and inside people of corporatocracy call them Jackals. When the EHM’s fails to achieve their goal of manipulating the corrupt leaders of the borrowing country, then NSA comes to play and send their mercenaries called jackals. John wrote that he can see all the signs and patterns of NSA in the plan crash of Panama leader Omar Torrijos Herrera and Ecuador’s President Jaime Roldós Aguilera. Omar Torrijos Herrera successfully negotiated the Panama Canal treaty in the favor of Panama and the President Jaime Roldós Aguilera policy on hydrocarbon was a threat to U.S interests and thought that it might make other Latin American countries make similar policies.

REVIEW

Unlike the books of Robert Kiyosaki, though he is my favourite author, you won’t find much repetition of things in this book. It not only covers the concept of corporatocracy, geopolitics over oil but also discuss the crucial subject of how world gigantic financial institutes like World Bank, IMF, Asian Development Bank, and USAID are making the modern-day imperial empire U.S more powerful.

The book is also great for those who want to make a habit of reading as the book comprises 4 parts and 35 chapters. Each chapter consists of a couple of pages, so even if you are new to the book reading thing, you can complete this book in just 35 days by reading each chapter a day.

The author has beautifully written his own story as Economic Hitman (EHM) and his experience in different countries, people, organizations and in different roles. His writing style won’t bore the readers who don’t even like the subject of economics and world policies & politics. It is a very fascinating book as it is a full pack of ambitions, emotions, success, loneliness, regret and confession.