Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Encyclopedia
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is a book written by John Perkins and published in 2004. It provides Perkins' account of his career with consulting firm Chas. T. Main
in Boston
. Before employment with the firm, he interviewed for a job with the National Security Agency
(NSA). Perkins claims that this interview effectively constituted an independent screening which led to his subsequent hiring by Einar Greve, a member of the firm (and alleged NSA liaison) to become a self-described "economic hit man". The book was allegedly referred to in an audio tape released by Osama Bin Laden
in September 2009.
According to his book, Perkins' function was to convince the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the World Bank
and USAID. Saddled with debts they could not hope to pay, those countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the United States
on a variety of issues. Perkins argues in his book that developing nations were effectively neutralized politically, had their wealth gaps
driven wider and economies crippled in the long run. In this capacity Perkins recounts his meetings with some prominent individuals, including Graham Greene
and Omar Torrijos
. Perkins describes the role of an EHM as follows:
The epilogue to the 2006 edition provides a rebuttal to the current move by the G8
nations to forgive Third World
debt. Perkins charges that the proposed conditions for this debt forgiveness require countries to privatise their health, education, electric, water and other public services. Those countries would also have to discontinue subsidies and trade restrictions that support local business, but accept the continued subsidization of certain G8 businesses by the US and other G8 countries, and the erection of trade barriers on imports that threaten G8 industries.
In the book, Perkins repeatedly denies the existence of a "conspiracy
." Instead, Perkins carefully discusses the role of corporatocracy
.
, has written that "the actual content of Perkins' admissions proves distressingly thin." According to the New York Times, "the book's popularity seems driven more by the mix of cloak-and-dagger atmospherics and Mr. Perkins's Damascene conversion" than by insight into "the larger issue of America's role in emerging economies."
Columnist Sebastian Mallaby of the Washington Post reacted sharply to Perkins' book: "This man is a frothing conspiracy theorist, a vainglorious peddler of nonsense, and yet his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, is a runaway bestseller." Mallaby, who spent 13 years writing for the London Economist
and wrote a critically well-received biography of World Bank
chief James Wolfensohn
, holds that Perkins' conception of international finance is "largely a dream" and that his "basic contentions are flat wrong." For instance he points out that Indonesia
reduced its infant mortality
and illiteracy rates by two-thirds after economists persuaded its leaders to borrow money in 1970. He also disputes Perkins' claim that 51 of the top 100 world economies belong to companies. A value-added comparison done by the UN, he says, shows the number to be 29. (The 51 of 100 data comes from an Institute for Policy Studies Dec, 2000 Report on the Top 200 corporations; using 2010 data from the CIA's World Factbook and Fortune Global 500
the current ratio is 114 corporations in the top 200 global economies.)
Other sources, including articles in the New York Times and Boston Magazine
as well as a press release issued by the United States Department of State
, have referred to a lack of documentary or testimonial evidence to corroborate the claim that the NSA was involved in his hiring to Chas T. Main. In addition, the author of the State Department release states that the NSA "is a cryptological
(codemaking and codebreaking) organization, not an economic organization" and that its missions do not involve "anything remotely resembling placing economists at private companies in order to increase the debt of foreign countries."
Economic historian Niall Ferguson
writes in his book The Ascent of Money
that Perkins's contention that the leaders of Ecuador
(President Jaime Roldós Aguilera
) and Panama
(General Omar Torrijos
) were assassinated by US agents for opposing the interests of the owners of their countries' foreign debt "seems a little odd" in light of the fact that in the 1970s the amount of money that the US had lent to Ecuador and Panama accounted for less than 0.4% of the total US grants and loans, while in 1990 the exports from the US to those countries accounted for approximately 0.4% of the total US exports (approximately $8 billion). According to Ferguson, those "do not seem like figures worth killing for."
Chas. T. Main
-History:It was founded in 1893 by Charles T. Main, an engineer for the textile mills of New England. It was privately owned by its senior engineers, it being felt that this would leave decision making to those that knew the industry best...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. Before employment with the firm, he interviewed for a job with the National Security Agency
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...
(NSA). Perkins claims that this interview effectively constituted an independent screening which led to his subsequent hiring by Einar Greve, a member of the firm (and alleged NSA liaison) to become a self-described "economic hit man". The book was allegedly referred to in an audio tape released by Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
in September 2009.
Content
According to Perkins, he began writing Confessions of an Economic Hit Man in the 1980s, but "threats or bribes always convinced [him] to stop."According to his book, Perkins' function was to convince the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
and USAID. Saddled with debts they could not hope to pay, those countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on a variety of issues. Perkins argues in his book that developing nations were effectively neutralized politically, had their wealth gaps
Gini coefficient
The Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion developed by the Italian statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini and published in his 1912 paper "Variability and Mutability" ....
driven wider and economies crippled in the long run. In this capacity Perkins recounts his meetings with some prominent individuals, including Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
and Omar Torrijos
Omar Torrijos
Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera was the Commander of the Panamanian and National Guard and the de facto leader of Panama from 1968 to 1981...
. Perkins describes the role of an EHM as follows:
Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly-paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World BankWorld BankThe World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other 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 included 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.
The epilogue to the 2006 edition provides a rebuttal to the current move by the G8
G8
The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for the governments of seven major economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1997, the group added Russia, thus becoming the G8...
nations to forgive Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
debt. Perkins charges that the proposed conditions for this debt forgiveness require countries to privatise their health, education, electric, water and other public services. Those countries would also have to discontinue subsidies and trade restrictions that support local business, but accept the continued subsidization of certain G8 businesses by the US and other G8 countries, and the erection of trade barriers on imports that threaten G8 industries.
In the book, Perkins repeatedly denies the existence of a "conspiracy
Conspiracy (civil)
A civil conspiracy or collusion is an agreement between two or more parties to deprive a third party of legal rights or deceive a third party to obtain an illegal objective....
." Instead, Perkins carefully discusses the role of corporatocracy
Corporatocracy
Corporatocracy, in social theories that focus on conflicts and opposing interests within society, denotes a system of government that serves the interest of, and may be run by, corporations and involves ties between government and business...
.
Controversy and criticism
Some of the book's critics have questioned whether Perkins makes a significant contribution to the debate on global finance and the development of the Third World. For instance, columnist Mark Engler of In These TimesIn These Times
In These Times is a politically progressive monthly magazine of news and opinion published by the Institute for Public Affairs in Chicago...
, has written that "the actual content of Perkins' admissions proves distressingly thin." According to the New York Times, "the book's popularity seems driven more by the mix of cloak-and-dagger atmospherics and Mr. Perkins's Damascene conversion" than by insight into "the larger issue of America's role in emerging economies."
Columnist Sebastian Mallaby of the Washington Post reacted sharply to Perkins' book: "This man is a frothing conspiracy theorist, a vainglorious peddler of nonsense, and yet his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, is a runaway bestseller." Mallaby, who spent 13 years writing for the London Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
and wrote a critically well-received biography of World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
chief James Wolfensohn
James Wolfensohn
Sir James David Wolfensohn AO KBE FKC was the ninth president of the World Bank Group.-Early life:James Wolfensohn was born in Sydney, Australia, on 1 December 1933...
, holds that Perkins' conception of international finance is "largely a dream" and that his "basic contentions are flat wrong." For instance he points out that Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
reduced its infant mortality
Infant mortality
Infant mortality is defined as the number of infant deaths per 1000 live births. Traditionally, the most common cause worldwide was dehydration from diarrhea. However, the spreading information about Oral Re-hydration Solution to mothers around the world has decreased the rate of children dying...
and illiteracy rates by two-thirds after economists persuaded its leaders to borrow money in 1970. He also disputes Perkins' claim that 51 of the top 100 world economies belong to companies. A value-added comparison done by the UN, he says, shows the number to be 29. (The 51 of 100 data comes from an Institute for Policy Studies Dec, 2000 Report on the Top 200 corporations; using 2010 data from the CIA's World Factbook and Fortune Global 500
Fortune Global 500
The Fortune Global 500 is a ranking of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue. The list is compiled and published annually by Fortune magazine....
the current ratio is 114 corporations in the top 200 global economies.)
Other sources, including articles in the New York Times and Boston Magazine
Boston magazine
Boston is a monthly magazine concerning life in the Greater Boston area and has been in publication for more than 40 years.-About the magazine:The magazine is self-described as:...
as well as a press release issued by the United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
, have referred to a lack of documentary or testimonial evidence to corroborate the claim that the NSA was involved in his hiring to Chas T. Main. In addition, the author of the State Department release states that the NSA "is a cryptological
Cryptography
Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...
(codemaking and codebreaking) organization, not an economic organization" and that its missions do not involve "anything remotely resembling placing economists at private companies in order to increase the debt of foreign countries."
Economic historian Niall Ferguson
Niall Ferguson
Niall Campbell Douglas Ferguson is a British historian. His specialty is financial and economic history, particularly hyperinflation and the bond markets, as well as the history of colonialism.....
writes in his book The Ascent of Money
The Ascent of Money
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World is Harvard professor Niall Ferguson's tenth book, published in 2008, and an adapted television documentary for Channel 4 and PBS...
that Perkins's contention that the leaders of Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
(President Jaime Roldós Aguilera
Jaime Roldós Aguilera
Jaime Roldós Aguilera was President of Ecuador from 10 August 1979 to 24 May 1981. In his short tenure, he became known for his firm stance on human rights. His death in a plane crash gave rise to speculation of involvement by the United States government in the accident.-Early life and...
) and Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
(General Omar Torrijos
Omar Torrijos
Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera was the Commander of the Panamanian and National Guard and the de facto leader of Panama from 1968 to 1981...
) were assassinated by US agents for opposing the interests of the owners of their countries' foreign debt "seems a little odd" in light of the fact that in the 1970s the amount of money that the US had lent to Ecuador and Panama accounted for less than 0.4% of the total US grants and loans, while in 1990 the exports from the US to those countries accounted for approximately 0.4% of the total US exports (approximately $8 billion). According to Ferguson, those "do not seem like figures worth killing for."
In popular culture
- In 2009, the documentary filmDocumentary filmDocumentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
Apologies of an Economic Hit Man featuring interviews with Perkins, was shown at film festivalFilm festivalA film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
s around the U.S. The film is a GreekGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
- U.S. co-production directed by Stelios KouloglouStelios KouloglouStelios Kouloglou is a Greek journalist and writer. He is the creator of the news web channel "TVXS" and a board member of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation. He is, also, a columnist for the LIFO magazine....
, and was filmed in 2007 and 2008. Numerous interview-style statements by John Perkins also appear in the 2008 documentary film, Zeitgeist: AddendumZeitgeist: AddendumZeitgeist: Addendum, is a 2008 documentary film produced and directed by Peter Joseph, and a sequel to the 2007 film Zeitgeist: The Movie. Zeitgeist: Addendum is itself followed by the 2011 film Zeitgeist: Moving Forward.-Synopsis:...
. - The song "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" on Anti Flag's album For Blood and EmpireFor Blood and Empire-Variations:*Some Australian and European releases add "Corporate Rock" – 1:53 as track 14.*The Japanese release adds "The New Millennium Generation" - 3:08 as track 14...
makes several references to the book.
Further reading
- New Confessions and Revelations from the World of Economic Hit Men, John Perkins, 2007-03-15.
- Confessions of an Economic Hitman(Video interview of author, John Perkins [Kinetic Reaction])
- John Perkins talks about his book with NOW's David Brancaccio (video), 2005-03-04.
- Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions, Interview with Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, 2004-11-09.
- In hock to Uncle Sam, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, Nick Lezard, 2006-02-10. - Recipe for empire, New Statesman, March 6, 2006, Paul Kingsnorth
- The sinister side of U.S. biz; Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin), July 29, 2005, By Judie Kleinmaier
- Incapable catharsis, The Weekend Australian, February 18, 2006, Matthew Bright
- Hit and Miss; There are good reasons "the mainstream media" has ignored John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, East Bay Express (California), February 1, 2006.
- Undermining poor nations in the name of profit, The Boston Globe, February 8, 2006, by Michael Langan
- A miss not a hit, Sunday Times (London), March 5, 2006, David Charters
- Conscience, confession from an agent of greed, The Seattle Times, January 22, 2006, Steve Weinberg
- A hit man repents, The Guardian, 2006-01-28.