Economic Hit Men

Book Reviewed:
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

John Perkins has written a tell-all regarding the wicked deeds of big business in international trade. This book has been widely hailed, translated into several languages, and has tremendous reviews from very many quarters. It is now the baseline for discussions regarding globalism. It should be read for that reason, but it should not be taken seriously.

The book maintains two tracks: one track is the documented evil deeds of big business that John Perkins engaged in, with his lies and duplicity; and the other track is the soulful torments and private conversations in which Perkins engaged. The problem is, whenever Perkins tells the tale of his personal wickedness, he is quite convincing. When he tells of meetings with big wigs, and earth-shattering encounters, when Perkins is struggling to be good, his tales are not credible.


The wickedness Perkins confesses is not much of a confession.. In short, Perkins “reveals” big govt backs big biz in overselling a foreign govt or entity on a USA development project. Well, we all know this. The project does not work out. The project goes bankrupt. We steal the income stream thereafter. This is his big secret? This is his confession? It’s like a used-car dealer saying he oversold his customers. A politician admitting he lies. We already know this!

Not only does big govt and big biz work together to do this to say Indonesians, they do it to USA citizens in USA as well. What do you think is going on when a student takes out a loan? He is overpaying for shoddy goods and is mortgaging his future. It’s worse if he joined the reserves for the educational benefits, because now he is in Iraq! Speaking of mortgages and war, what do you think the entire real estate boom has accomplished? Countless Americans are sitting ducks, waiting for the governments next move. A few facts: if a draft is called, the Selective Service Administration has the power to call all medical personnel, of either sex, and people up to 39 years of age. How come the new changes? Hmmm...? Banks cannot foreclose on active duty military personnel. If one family gives up one member to the military, and they quitclaim the property to that member, the family keeps the house. If we just had a bigger war, all of our problems would be solved! These new rules sound like a moral hazard to me.

But forget about predictions, let’s talk about now: one town in Connecticut has a program where elders can work off their taxes due by laboring for the city. In Moscow you see the babushkas sweeping the snow on the sidewalks. Is this our future?

Cities love the real estate boom. Taxes are a percent of property value. As property values rise, so does tax income. Do governments ever cut taxes? Never (only the rate of increase)! With more revenue, city managers can place more girlfriends in the parks department.

The govt hands out welfare checks and subsidizes corn, fat and salt... and makes Fritos food stamp staples. Obesity is the #1 health threat among the poor?!

If big govt and big biz does this to USA citizens, why not all the more to foreigners?

By staking out a claim against these exploitations overseas, Perkins is betraying his Republican paymasters. Overseas exploitation is a Republican gig, they being the party of intervention abroad. At the same time, Perkins lauds the Democrats, so he fails to note they do the same thing, only domestically. (Moderate believe we should intervene in both realms.)

At the same time, when Perkins argues redeeming features in himself, he is not at all credible. Perkins tells of his early years, and mysterious meetings, where he is groomed for bigger things. As he tells it, he does not quite understand at the time, but he is sure they mean big deals and big money, with sinister overtones. He is seduced into a world he ultimately rejects. None of these unverifiable stories sound real.

And the very idea he was somehow seduced into these evil deeds is incredible. Mr. Perkins, there are hundreds, if not thousands, perhaps millions, of us who are made the exact same offer. Almost everyone sees the offers for exactly what they are, and says “no.” The reason the Hondurans are suffering from USA exploitation is because people like you say “yes, gimmee.”

That he actually did wicked things is believable given his documentation, names, dates, places. It is verifiable. That he was no economist, in spite of fraudulently being sold as one to unsuspecting clients around the world, he proves as well. He still demonstrates no understanding of econ 101, but as he admits, he never studied it.

By page 233 Perkins tells us “Wandering around Ground Zero and Wall Street... forced me to take a hard look at the consequences of the things I had done over the last three decades.” The problem is about every chapter he is forced to face his demons, he just never does. Plus his tales of stricken conscience seem to be so much backfill, telling us he saw all this wickedness long ago, before any other.

One of the best parts is his tale of struggle to get the book published, how no mainstream big biz publisher would touch it, he feared for his life, such heroism! How he suffers for us! (His Publisher is Penguin Books, one of the biggest in the world. His devotees must be too obtuse to check the copyright page of the book they have in hand, and apparently he knows it.).

About halfway through the book, it is clear Perkins is writing a story to position himself for his next gig. On page 199 Perkins quotes Jim Garrison, head of State of the World forum “No nation on earth has been able to resist the compelling magnetism of globalization.” This is of course nonsense. Such countries as Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Cuba and plenty of others have resisted globalization, all places few people would choose to live. Nonetheless, his arguments are pure Al Gore progressive.

After finishing the book, I read some reviews on Amazon.com, where this is noted, and naturally, the pros and cons run along party lines. The right wing criticism and left wing applause was predictable, but there was a surprising thread. Some left-wingers were skeptical, even suspicious. Is Perkins just another scam artist, moving from overseas and ‘economic development’ to domestic and ‘global warming’ now that the Republicans have fouled their nest? My guess is the left-wing skeptics are perspicacious here.

I wanted to quit halfway through the book, but I struggled through to the end. I figured if this book is a standard reference now, I should at least have read it. The finale was worth the suffering. Perkins compares himself to Paul Revere, and now he will ride into the night warning all of us about the Economic Hit Men. OK.

But his summary on “what you can do” is a gem. He tells us that the institutions are fine, it is just the people running them(!). If people like Perkins and his devotees were in charge, Nike and McDonalds would be known for clothing the naked and feeding the poor. (They’re not?) So after regurgitating the Al Gore playbook, he gets down to it:

1. Offer study groups about his book at your local bookstore or library.

2. Send emails to everyone on your address books telling them about this book.

3. You should confess how you are wicked too.

(I am not making this up... check it out on page 262.)

He also offers eco-tours.

Now I must say I envy such chutzpah. Why don’t I think like that? I need to write a book like this, telling everyone the world can be a wicked place, and the solution is to buy my book. This guy is selling millions of copies, in countless languages, and I move maybe thousands a year. What a chump! I write a book that says, “how to...now go do it!” And then I give away follow-up advice!

In my next book, I will be a liar and a thief, I’ll cry like Oprah, I’ll warn you about all our troubles, and my solution will be make your friends buy my book. I’ll get rich!

Nah, that would be boring.

I might make the point that we have collectively benefitted from the exploitation of foreigners. What Perkins describes he did to others, we are watching foreigners do to us today, as Arabs and Chinese buy up bankrupt USA assets. Our leaders are doing to us what Peruvian leaders did to Peruvians. Perhaps this is just condign punishment.

This is not the book to read to learn how the world works, why there are the civil wars, the starvation, the horror, the horror of it all. You already knew what is in this book. My next book review will cover the book that does explain how it works.

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