Review: “The New Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man” By John Perkins

Why you want to read “The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins?

If you love a good firsthand account of corruption at the highest levels of government that reads like a crime novel, you’ll enjoy this book. But first, let’s define ‘Economic Hit Man’ and how they relates to our current world:

“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.”

John Perkins, The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

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Consequences Of Perkins’ Time At Chas. T. Main

As Chief Economist for private company Chas. T. Main, Perkins’ role was making up statistics to show world leaders projected benefits of taking out massive infrastructure loans with the projection that it would “improve the lives of its citizens”. The reality, however, is that these building projects did not improve lives. It worsened them. Even worse, the loans were impossible to pay back.

So what does a country do when it can’t pay the US back? It allows the US to put up a military base or exploit its natural resources to start. Or maybe they could just support whatever agenda the US wants at a UN conference or comply with US global policy. There are a few ways the US gets what it wants.

What happens if they refuse? Two of Perkins’s clients — the heads of Panama and Ecuador — mysteriously died in plane crashes shortly after refusal. Understanding this reality, many world leaders fold without a fight knowing their replacements won’t make the same mistake and the country would be taken over anyway.

The Truth About US Corporation By John Perkins

The fact that Perkins put his neck on the line to write the original of this book in 2003 and rewrite it a decade later speaks to the urgency he places on his message. His books outline how US corporations have been getting the government to do its bidding in order to subjugate every human on the planet for decades. DECADES!

From the outside, we believe that the intent is honorable, but this book seriously throws that notion into question. What we fail to see as Americans is that countries, where people are starving or living in moldy shanties, are the result of systems such as American intervention and colonialism. In fact, many researchers confirm that starvation was rare in much of the world prior to outside entities coming in to burn down villages and force the local population to work on plantations for food.

As an aside, do I have to spell out for you the dangers of taking food production out of the hands of farmers and consumers? Let’s get real. If we want to protect the environment as is currently being proposed, we’d eliminate chemical fertilizers and other lab-grown food proposals and graze cattle instead of raising them in confinement.

There are many warnings in this book that are relevant today. This updated version of the book gives us ideas of how we can transform the system for the future. I just hope it’s not too late.

Have you read any of John Perkins’s work? Do you have your own insider account that you’d like to share? Leave me a comment below!

Where To Purchase

The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is available through Amazon or fine booksellers now.

If you enjoy this topic, please read my review about the Tuskagee Experiment.