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March 15, 2007 at 14:28:28
John Perkins: New Confessions and Revelations from the World of Economic Hit Men by John Perkins Page 1 of 4 page(s) |
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Excerpted from the book, A GAME AS OLD AS EMPIRE release date, March 19, 2007 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 Bank, 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 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. I wrote that opening paragraph to Confessions of an Economic Hit Man as a description of my own profession. Since the book’s first publication in early November 2004, I have heard TV, radio, and event hosts read those words many times as they introduced me to their audiences. The reality of EHMs shocked people in the United States and other countries. Many have told me that it convinced them to commit themselves to taking actions that will make this a better world. 
The public interest aroused by Confessions was not a foregone conclusion. I spent a great deal of time working up the courage to try to publish it. Once I made the decision to do so, my attempts got off to a rocky start.
By late 2003, the manuscript had been circulated to many publishers—and I had almost given up on ever seeing the book in print. Despite praising it as “riveting,” “eloquently written,” “an important exposé,” and “a story that must be told,” publisher after publisher—twenty-five, in fact—rejected it. My literary agent and I concluded that it was just too anti-corporatocracy. (A word introduced to most readers in those pages, corporatocracy refers to the powerful group of people who run the world’s biggest corporations, the most powerful governments, and history’s first truly global empire.) The major publishing houses, we concluded, were too intimidated by, or perhaps too beholden to, the corporate elite.
Eventually a courageous independent publisher, Berrett-Koehler, took the book on. Confessions’ success among the public astounded me. During its first week in bookstores it went to number 4 on Amazon.com. Then it spent many weeks on every major bestseller list. In less than fourteen months, it had been translated into and published in twenty languages. A major Hollywood company purchased the option to film it. Penguin/Plume bought the paperback rights.
Despite all these successes, an important element was still missing. The major U.S. media refused to discuss Confessions or the fact that, because of it, words such as EHM, corporatocracy, and jackal were now appearing on college syllabuses. The New York Times and other newspapers had to include it on their bestseller lists—after all, numbers don’t lie (unless an EHM produces them, as you will see in the following pages)—but during its first fifteen months in print most of them obstinately declined to review it. Why?
My agent, my publicist, the best minds at Berrett-Koehler and Penguin/Plume, my family, my friends, and I may never know the real answer to that question. What we do know is that several nationally recognized journalists appeared poised on the verge of writing or speaking about the book. They conducted “pre-interviews” with me by phone and dispatched producers to wine and dine my wife and me. But, in the end, they declined. A major TV network convinced me to interrupt a West Coast speaking tour, fly to New York, and dress up in a television-blue sports coat. Then—as I waited at the door for the network’s limo—an employee called to cancel. Whenever media apologists offered explanations for such actions, they took the form of questions: “Can you prove the existence of other EHMs?” “Has anyone else written about these things?” “Have others in high places made similar disclosures?”
The answer to these questions is, of course, yes. Every major incident described in the book has been discussed in detail by other authors—usually lots of other authors. The CIA’s coup against Iran’s Mossadegh; the atrocities committed by his replacement, Big Oil’s puppet, the Shah; the Saudi Arabian money-laundering affair; the jackal-orchestrated assassinations of Ecuador’s President Jaime Roldos and Panama’s President Omar Torrijos; allegations of collusion between oil companies and missionary groups in the Amazon; the international activities of Bechtel, Halliburton, and other pillars of American capitalism; the unilateral and unprovoked U.S. invasion of Panama and capture of Manuel Noriega; the coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez—these and the other events in the book are a matter of public record.
Several pundits criticized what some referred to as my “radical accusation”—that economic forecasts are manipulated and distorted in order to achieve political objectives (as opposed to economic objectivity) and that foreign “aid” is a tool for big business rather than an altruistic means to alleviate poverty. However, both of these transgressions against the true purposes of sound economics and altruism have been well documented by a multitude of people, including a former World Bank chief economist and winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, Joseph Stiglitz. In his book, Globalization and Its Discontents, Stiglitz writes:
To make its [the IMF’s] programs seem to work, to make the numbers “add up,” economic forecasts have to be adjusted. Many users of these numbers do not realize that they are not like ordinary forecasts; in these instances GDP forecasts are not based on a sophisticated statistical model, or even on the best estimates of those who know the economy well, but are merely the numbers that have been negotiated as part of an IMF program.1 …
Globalization, as it has been advocated, often seems to replace the old dictatorships of national elites with new dictatorships of international finance …. For millions of people globalization has not worked …. They have seen their jobs destroyed and their lives become more insecure.2
I found it interesting that during my first book tour—for the hardcover edition, in late 2004 and early 2005—I sometimes heard questions from my audiences that reflected the mainstream press. However, they were significantly diminished during the paperback edition tour in early 2006. The level of sophistication among readers had risen over the course of that year. A growing suspicion that the mainstream press was collaborating with the corporatocracy—which, of course, owned much of it or at least supported it through advertising—had become manifest. While I would love to credit Confessions for this transformation in public attitude, my book has to share that honor with a number of others, such as Stiglitz’s Globalization and Its Discontents, David Korten’s When Corporations Rule the World, Noam Chomsky’s Hegemony or Survival, Chalmers Johnson’s Sorrows of Empire, and Antonia Juhasz’s Bush Agenda, as well as films such as The Constant Gardner, Syriana, Hotel Rwanda, Good Night, and Good Luck, and Munich. The American public recently has been treated to a feast of exposés. Mine is definitely not a voice in the wilderness.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that the corporatocracy has created the world’s first truly global empire, inflicted increased misery and poverty on millions of people around the planet, managed to sabotage the principles of self-determination, justice, and freedom that form the foundations upon which the United States stands, and turned a country that was lauded at the end of World War II as democracy’s savior into one that is feared, resented, and hated, the mainstream press ignores the obvious. In pleasing the moneymen and the executives upstairs, many journalists have turned their backs on the truth. When approached by my publicists, they continue to ask: “Where are the trenches?” “Can you produce the trowels that dug them?” “Have any ‘objective’ researchers confirmed your story?”
Although the evidence was already available, Berrett-Koehler and I decided that the proper response was to answer such questions in terms that no one could ignore and that only those who insisted on remaining in denial could dispute. We would publish a book with many contributors, an anthology, further revealing the world of economic hit men and how it works.
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change
Sir, I live in Ky. and can barely pay my own bills, just a below average Am. citizen. You on the other hand are among the elites and having repented of your many sins can and will make a difference. I can not. I write my reps. but they don't listen. I am involved with a peace group, but they don't listen to us either. Only those in power can repent and change what's going in this world. Keep up the goods works. Bill by Bill Ehleben (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 30 comments) on Thursday, Mar 15, 2007 at 7:36:04 PM  (0+)
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Monoply
Monopoly -- the game: When I was a teenager a groups of us played that over one summer. There was one fellow who always had amazing luck ( how was a mystery) and kept winning. But then the rest of us discovered something: we could band together, pooling our resources, and make interest free loans to each other, even we landed on each other's hotels, or when an opportunity to buy presented itself to another 'union member'. It wasn't long before we started winning regularly, and the lucky fellow who had been regularly wiping us out got rather frustrated and angry -- but was helpless to do anything about it. Sadly for him he was not able to set each of us aginst the others -- to divide and conquer. As the third world figures this out -- the power of unity -- the empire finds itself at wit's (and halfwit's) end. The American people are a bit slow on the uptake here, and boggled by the media and cultural hegemony, and can hardly imagine such things as general strikes or effective mutual support communities, but the time is coming. Thing is, there are a LOT more of us than them: we just have to get our act together. by Blue Pilgrim (0 articles, 3 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 997 comments) on Thursday, Mar 15, 2007 at 8:30:07 PM (0+)
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See Also David Korten
I guess this is really a thinly disguised promotional peice for Perkin's book: "Confessions..."? That's good. I have NO problem with that. I've read it, & I think more North Americans should read it too. Perkins is an intelligent thoughtful fellow - the book is short and sketchy. I would have like to read more of the details about the 180° change in the arc of his life. I wanted simply to recommend another book by another author that discusses much of the same, and in more detail. Perhaps the 'guilty conscience of America book club' could offer these two titles as a package deal at a slight markdown. Check into David Korten's Here's a quote from Korten that sums up the root causes of our current shituation: "Greed and violence in adult humans are symptoms of developmental pathologies systematically cultivated by imperial cultures and institutions." Korten also authored: "When Corporations Rule the World" Both worth a peek. by mrk * (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 311 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Mar 15, 2007 at 9:29:48 PM (0+)
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Reply: Actually this is from the follow--up book to Hit Man
THis is the introductory chapter, by Perkins, excerpted from the book, A GAME AS OLD AS EMPIRE release date, March 19, 2007. We'll be running another chapter next week. by Rob Kall (952 articles, 4177 quicklinks, 374 diaries, 2087 comments [45 recommended, 3 rejected]) on Friday, Mar 16, 2007 at 6:00:10 AM (0+)
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Confessions
I read last month. Stumbled over it on Amazon. 20 some Euros was a steep price but I found the book was worth it. While Perkins' Confessions was entertaining, I found it lacking a much greater overall picture of what went wrong with US Democracy. Gangs of America by Ted Nace provides a great backdrop for Perkins' books....and his story. You can find it online, and free of charge. Funny though, how an Irish friend of mine said to me the other day that he would like to read this "Hitman" or "Confessions of a Hitman" book but he didn't know the exact title or Author. I confessed I had just finished reading it and mentioned Perkins' latest book....and so the word is being spread...amongst people who care and can read a book from beginning to end. Having said that, a book will never suffice. People need pictures. The graphic Mr. Perkins has posted is a good example. One chip I need to get off my shoulder......reading Confessions, I had a very bad taste in my mouth the moment I read what Perkins had to say about 9/11. The perspective is wrong, dead wrong. In my humble opinion, ill practices by US Businesses did not lure terrorists into the USA. They were ushered in. These terrorists did not pull off 9/11....they were led to believe they did. It was an inside job covered up by a group of real patsies who really did plan on pulling it off. They could not imagine just how much they were being used. by Tony Forest (7 articles, 18 quicklinks, 166 diaries, 1429 comments [5 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Mar 16, 2007 at 2:46:54 AM (0+)
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I have to chuckle a little
All the methodologies and consequences of the EHM game of capitalism are described with eloquence in the works of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, sorry to say. These also had been described in the books written by Russian and even Chinese historians on the major events, like Hitler's rise to power or the rise and fall of British Empire. Like for instance, the renowned Sir Robert Baden- Powell was in reality a spy, a crook, an EHM and also had some shizoid tendencies. In a normal life such person should not be left alone with a child. You would be shocke dif I reveal some interesting facts about Churchill. That is why the EHM confessions are not something new to me. What is surprising is so deeply rooted hypocricy that people here do not want to see the truth even if is good for them. BTW, that hypocricy is described also with gusto by Jack London, Emil Zola, C.P. Snow, Heihrich Heine, but... I could not believe it. Now I believe it. It is the truth. by Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4101 comments [130 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Mar 16, 2007 at 6:40:23 AM (0+)
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Reply: Honestly......
I haven't read anything from Karl or Vlad...yet. I've been told they wrote a lot of good stuff about (bad) capitolism. But Ted Nace's book hits the nail on the head in explaining in great detail where the US Freedom Train de-railed. plugger: http://www.gangsofamerica.com/ Yet, none of this discredits Mr. Perkins' books. His personal experience is still something worth reading about. Especially for some of us who are still at it...the big money game i.e., slaves to Corporate America etc. We're cogs in the wheel....little Eichmanns as Prof. Ward Churchill rightly put it. by Tony Forest (7 articles, 18 quicklinks, 166 diaries, 1429 comments [5 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Mar 16, 2007 at 7:50:59 AM (0+)
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Money
"The love of money is the root of all evil" as a famous book once said. How true, how true. Live a simple life, stop investing in corrupt corporations. Do what you can. Awaken to a new way of thinking before it's too late. by Bob Gormley (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 1094 comments [65 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Mar 16, 2007 at 8:15:58 AM (0+)
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Confessions
Dear Mr. Perkins: I am the voting integrity editor for OpEdNews and I wrote a review of your Confessions in January. This is the link. click here I was very disturbed by your book and it haunted me for weeks afterwards. I even considered doing a follow-up piece including some of the material that I couldn't cram in to the original. I got quite a lot of comments on my piece, many from others who had read your book. I'll be interested to read the new one and am glad that more documentation is joining your book on the library and bookstore shelves. best wishes and much success in your attempts to turn things around. Joan Brunwasser, OpEdNews by Joan Brunwasser (206 articles, 3757 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 751 comments [4 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Mar 17, 2007 at 11:10:05 PM (0+)
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