Confessions of an Economic Hitman

By: John Perkins

Narrated by: Brian Emerson

Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

This is the inside story of how America turned from a respected republic into a feared empire.

"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."

John Perkins should know; he was an economic hit man. His job was to convince countries that are strategically important to the U.S., from Indonesia to Panama, to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development and to make sure that the lucrative projects were contracted to Halliburton, Bechtel, Brown and Root, and other United States engineering and construction companies. Saddled with huge debts, these countries came under the control of the United States government, World Bank, and other U.S.-dominated aid agencies that acted like loan sharks, dictating repayment terms and bullying foreign governments into submission.

This extraordinary real-life tale exposes international intrigue, corruption, and little-known government and corporate activities that have dire consequences for American democracy and the world.

Listen to John Perkins discuss the book on To the Best of Our Knowledge.

©2004 John Perkins (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

good one

I don't know how much of it can be proven but a pretty interesting all the same.

Beautifully read and written. A great story!

A book that must be really by all (in the US especially). Beautifully written and very well read, the work is an eye-opener in many complementary senses.

Overall an engaging read

Offers a different perspective on the collective human consciousness and the impact of ones actions.. the book is quite courageous if anything of the book is true which it seems that some parts of not most would have happened at some level..

Amzing

A good read to understanding the west and its consequential foreign policy in the global south and east.

A Textbook History

Not an American textbook, however. Instead, this enlightening and disturbing book relates a history of the world since World War II that demonstrates how the United States has become a new kind of Empire. This Empire is based not on military might -- although as we see in Iraq, this is always an option -- but on the power of giant U.S. engineering, construction and oil corporations to induce nations around the world to borrow heavily from entities like the World Bank and USAID for economic development. Once these nations join the list of debtor nations, these staggering debts are used to get them to accede to a variety of U.S. political and corporate interests.

"Confessions" is John Perkins' personal account of how, as an "Economic Hitman" or EHM, he and others like him spearheaded this new kind of imperialism. The corporations EHM's worked for are almost quasi-governmental and have supplied our government with officials like Dick Cheney (Halliburton), George Schultz and Caspar Weinberger (Bechtel) and Geoge H.W. Bush who started in oil, became a Congressman, U.N. Ambassador, CIA Director, Vice President, President and is now associated with the highly-influential Carlyle Group.

But it is the close association of all these people, agencies and corporations with events of history that is so striking. It was the corporatocracy that wanted the legally elected democratic leaders in Guatemala, Iraq, Chile, Panama and Equador assassinated. Their sins? They wanted the profits from the oil, minerals and produce from their countries to help advance the standard of living of their own people. The corporatocracy felt otherwise, as maximum profits are its only raison d'etre.

But it is the story of the corporatocracy's relationship with Saudi Arabia and the House of Saud and that is most revealing. World events will not be seen in the same light after reading this book.

This isn't an American textbook, but should be required reading for all Americans.

As seen in the world

Unfortunately, I believe all of the facts in the book to be true. As for those who want to doubt it, look around the world. Talk to people outside of the US and hear what is being said and felt. As for the audiobook part, the narration (as most are) is dry.
Overall, enjoyed it.

Five Star Book, Zero-Star Narrator

The narrator's odd declamatory style--at least to my ear--muffled some of the story's impact, but never mind. The story still sizzles.
Whatever you might think of John Perkins himself, the history he witnessed and shaped as a cog in the "corporatocracy" needs to be told.
Just listen, and I promise you, you will never again wonder "...why do they hate us so much."

The Other Side of the Story

The Basics: the actual pace of speach was just right, not too involved yet not too slow to be boring. The actual story was absolutely facinating. I always wondered through the years what the other side of the story was. Here, you get it. All the explanations I heard to explain American expansionism seemed to be only one sided. If you have a conscience you'll be interested in this rendition of the truth. Excellent. I couldn't leave it alone until I finished it.

Fire revealed!

This compelling personal account confirms various truths for me about what really goes on in the world today. It's like that common saying - "Where's there smoke, there's fire" and I've been seeing a lot of smoke recently and known there's been fire...well this book shows you size and color of that fire!! Awesome book! Well worth it!

A must read

I loved, this audio book. It really makes you open your eyes to the world around you and want to make a difference. I have already recommended this book to 5 other people. It's great.