Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (2004) by John Perkins

As someone with a Masters Degree in Latin American history, nothing stated in this book came as a surprise to me. However, having the truth presented by an actual economic hit man (EHM) was hard-core confirmation of the dirty dealings of major American corporations working together with agents of the U.S. government.

“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 take on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.”

John Perkins fell into an “analyst” position with the international consulting firm Chas. T. Main in 1971, where he worked to enhance U.S. interests in the Middle East and Latin America before he resigned in 1980. After meeting Panamanian General Omar Torrijos and author Graham Greene, Perkins began having second thoughts about the consequences of U.S. economic meddling abroad. The game of recruiting and buying off corrupt politicians in developing nations, so U.S.-owned corporations could enjoy decades of massive earnings, while the developing countries became perpetually more in debt, eventually shamed Perkins.

Many of the CIA’s shenanigans were referenced in this book, including the overthrow of democratically-elected governments such as Mohammad Mossadegh of Iran in 1951 to secure access to oil, Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala in 1954 to benefit the United Fruit Company, and Salvador Allende of Chile in 1973, because he was a socialist.

Perkins refers to the corporatocracy as “big corporations, international banks, and government.” He outlines how the military-industrial complex — working in cahoots with prominent Republican lawmakers — sought to hand over huge contracts to corporations like Main, Bechtel, Halliburton and others, while making developing nations “increasingly dependent on the United States.”

I gave this book out to family, friends, and colleagues as a Christmas present one year.

In recent years, John Perkins has gone in a very different direction, leading trips to the jungles of Latin America where people partake in ayahuasca, a psychedelic drug.