Notes
Overall, an interesting and fun read. The premise is certainly shocking, and paints an incredibly frightening picture of multinational corporate America. And the book is certainly gripping enough; it's actually kinda shocking to find this sort of work over in the nonfiction section.
Perkins certainly isn't going to win any accolades for his writing, though. His style is rather turgid and chock-full of cliche: all the women are shockingly beautiful, the men dark, dashing and mysterious. It's basically the non-fiction version of a bad Grisham knock-off. Perkins seems to see himself as a sort of "international man of mystery," which contradicts his main premise that it's not a Spy-vs-Spy world, but one where the hit men operate openly.
Worse, Perkin's credibility is hard to assess: the people, companies, and agencies mentioned have issued more or less categorical denials — and yet, if the story's true ...
Description edit
With new material from the author "Economic hit men," John Perkins writes," are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. 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 terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization." John Perkins should know-he was an economic hit man for an international consulting firm that worked to convince developing countries to accept enormous loans and to funnel that money to U.S. corporations. Once these countries were saddled with huge debts, the American government and international aid agencies were able to request their "pound of flesh" in favors, including access to natural resources, military cooperation, and political support. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is the story of one man's experiences inside the intrigue, greed, corruption and little-known government and corporate activities that America has been involved in since World War II, and which have dire consequences for the future of democracy and the world.
Additional information
- Pages: 320
- ISBN: 0452287081
- EAN: 9780452287082
- Dewey: 332.042092
- Binding: Paperback
- Publisher: Plume