John Perkins - Author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"
John Perkins (b. January 28, 1945 in Hanover, New Hampshire) is an economist and author. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador from 1968–1970 and this experience launched him in the world of economics and writing. His best known book is Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (2004), an insider's account of the exploitation or neo-colonization of Third World countries by what Perkins describes as a cabal of corporations, banks, and the United States government. His 2007 book, The Secret History of the American Empire, provides more evidence of the negative impact of global corporations on the economies and ecologies of poor countries, as well as offering suggestions for making corporations behave more like good citizens.
Perkins also wrote an introduction to the 2007 book A Game as Old as Empire: the Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption (edited by Steven Hiatt), a collection of accounts from investigators, journalists and other economic hitmen. The book offers further evidence of economic hit men and rebuts some of the criticism that Perkins' book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man received.
Interview - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - Part II
Book Description
Publication Date: November 9, 2004
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man reveals a game that, according to John Perkins, is "as old as Empire" but has taken on new and terrifying dimensions in an era of globalization. And Perkins should know. For many years he worked for an international consulting firm where his main job was to convince LDCs (less developed countries) around the world to accept multibillion-dollar loans for infrastructure projects and to see to it that most of this money ended up at Halliburton, Bechtel, Brown and Root, and other United States engineering and construction companies. This book, which many people warned Perkins not to write, is a blistering attack on a little-known phenomenon that has had dire consequences on both the victimized countries and the U.S.
John Perkins on Globalization
"When we address the issue of poverty, I think we really have to look at who benefits from poverty. And the fact of the matter is, the wealthy folks benefit from poverty. So in a way, you might say that the problem is not so much "poverty" as the problem is "Wealth". "Prosperity". And when it is taken to an extreme, that wealth is used as the measure of value in a culture, which is what's happened in our culture..." - John Perkins
More in the interview below:
