CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN
By John Perkins
(Berrett-Koehler)
$24.95 Hardcover, 250pp.
www.bkconnection.com
Author John Perkins knows a thing or two about the seedy, corrupt end of the corporate underworld--for over ten years he played a direct role in it. Not unlike General Smedley Butler before him (famous for blowing the cover on an attempted fascist coup against FDR) who wrote in his book War Is A Racket about the many ways in which he was a "racketeer for capitalism," making the world safe for foreign investment by U.S. interests, Perkins worked covertly for moneyed interests to ensure Western hegemony over the "developing" nations. Perkins describes how he was recruited by the U.S. National Security Agency to be what is termed by insiders as an "economic hit man." From 1971 to 1981 he worked for an investment consultant firm whose job it was to, among other things, to convince underdeveloped countries to accept huge loans for infrastructure development (much larger than they could afford) and to make sure that the contracts for this "development" went to U.S. multinationals. Then when these countries defaulted on their loans, the Western economic interests would dictate the repayment terms--imposing harsh structural adjustment and fiscal austerity policies effectively resulting in the banking interests controlling the economic activity of these less powerful and financially strapped nations. The process is not dissimilar to the predatory practices of a loan shark--the real difference being that a loan shark is a common street thug and the captains of industry are "respectable" members of "civilized" society. And of course, that the effects of corporate crime are more far-reaching and devastating (if not deadly) to a larger group of human beings worldwide. Perkins writes of how he was bribed and coerced for years to not write this book, but finally his conscience got the best of him. This insider's tale offers a valuable perspective and is a must read for anyone concerned with holding corporations accountable to standards of simple human decency. -EDWARD BURCH
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