BOOK REVIEW: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

By Rob Williams

Every once in a while, a book comes along that confirms one's suspicions about the way the world really works. John Perkins's Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is such a book. What is an EHM? Perkins explains:

Economic hit men are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization. I should know; I was an EHM.

Why don't American citizens know about the work of global elites? As an imperial whistleblower, Perkins highlights the role of corporate media in constructing “realities” Americans imagine about themselves and their role in the world—“realities” that mask deeper and more troublesome truths. “Things are not as they appear,” writes Perkins. “Most of our newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses are owned—and manipulated—by gigantic international corporations.” U.S. mainstream commercial media make up an important part of the “corporatocracy,” a term Perkins coins to describe “a vast network that promotes U.S. commercial interests.”

How did the United States find itself an imperial colossus astride the world stage? The Almighty's blessing? Our love of “freedom”? Our practice of “democracy”? Superior genes? Perkins' truth is more disturbing. During the past several decades, government elites have collaborated with the leaders of powerful multinational corporations to wield policies that have lined the pockets of some of the world's most wealthy families—Bush in the United States, Saud in the Middle East, to name but two. EHMs like Perkins comprise the vanguard—those who carried out these policies in the name of “economic development,” “globalization,” and all the other familiar buzzwords designed to soothe. If economic pressure fails, elites send in the military to “liberate” a country's people from the clutches of an “oppressive government,” or call on the CIA or the “jackals” to assassinate democratically elected leaders who refuse to toe the imperial line. Perkins argues that the “war of liberation” in Iraq, now two years underway, is but another step in elites' plan to maintain U.S. imperial mandates in a strategic part of the world for as long as possible, regardless of the human or financial costs.

If you are truly interested in cutting through all of the media blather about “globalization,” “freedom,” “democracy,” and the “war on terror” to discover the deeper and unsettling truths, then read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. And, assuming you are frightened by what you read, do something about it.

—Rob Williams