Confessions of An Economic Hit Man
John Perkins          

Summary

An eye opening book that explains Amercia's playbook in the 20th century to capture the world through modern imperialist tactists

Rating: 5/5

Notes

Economic hit men are highly paid professionals who cheat countries out of trillions. They funnel money from the World Bank, USAID and other foreign aid organizations into the pockets of huge corporations and a few wealthy families who own all the world’s natural resources

EHMs job is to encourage world leaders to become part of a vast network that promotes US commercial interests

It is driven by a concept that has become gospel: the idea that economic growth benefits humankind and the greater the growth, greater the benefit. Also that those who stoke the fires of growth should be rewarded while those at the fringes are exploited

The corportocracy is not a conspiracy (global empire, corporations, banks and governments)

Empires never last, they fail horribly - no one can thrive long term by exploiting others

EHMs build the empire. They provide favours like the mafia. These happen in the form of loans to build infrastructure but a condition is the engineering and construction companies come from the USA (China runs the same playbook now). Despite the money being returned to the corporations, the country is required to pay it all bank, principal + interest

If an EHM is successful, the debt is so large the debtor defaults after a few years and when they fail, we ask for our favour by controlling UN votes, installing army bases or access to resources/oil like the Panama Canal

Every country EHMs have brought under the empire have suffered horrible consequences and crippling debt

Oil was discovered in Ecuador. For every $100 of crude taken from their rain forests, the oil companies receive $75 and of the remaining 25$, 3/4th go to paying the foreign debt

EHMs are crafty by dressing like teachers and appearing like bureaucrats and bankers and lecturers at Harvard Business School

Life is composed of a series of coincidences and how we react to these is everything - the choices we make in the boundaries of the twists of fate determine who we are

The goal of the EHM was to produce reports that brought the most GDP by using American contractors and funneling the money back to the US

The main reason to establish embassies around the world was for our interest which meant turning America into the global empire

The history of EHMs goes back to the Shah of Iran and how the CIA promoted violence in Iran to get the democratically elected president out and put in a pro-American dictator (Kermit Roosevelt Jr. - Theodore’s grandson)

Corportocracy was a close-knit fraternity of a few men with shared goals and the members moved easily between corporate boards and the government (bankers and govt employees)

Promoting capitalism often results in a system that resembles medieval feudal societies

‘Stop being so greedy and so selfish. Realize that there is more to the world than your big buses and fancy stores. People are starving and you worry about oil for your cars. Babies are dying of thirst and you search fashion magazines for the latest styles. Nations like ours are drowning in poverty but your people don’t even hear our cry for help. You shut off your ear to the voices of those who also try to tell you these things. You label them radicals or communists. You must open your heart to the poor and downtrodden, instead of driving them further into poverty and servitude. There’s not much time left. If you don’t change, you’re doomed’ - Indonesian girl he met

North Americans don’t know much about the rest of the world

CIA overthrew Allende in Chile in 1973 and destroyed Guatamela (installed Pinochet in Chile)

Robert Macnamara’s greatest and most sinister contribution to history was to push the World Bank into becoming an agent of the US global empire like never before

The oil embargo of 1973 strengthened corporatocracy like never before

The US-Saudi deal - Saudi would use petrodollars to buy US govt secrutities, the interest on these securities would be spent by the US treasury to pay US firms to build Saudi 

• Foreigners/Americans would determine how Saudi looked and operated
• Never got Congress’ approval

Bush and Saudi royal family were very close. Saudi financed terrorists organizations

• ‘Saving the Saudis - Vanity Fair 2003’

Life is composed of a series of coincidences of which we have no control. How we respond makes all the difference

Ecaudorian president Roldos plane was blown up in 1981, likely by the US, because he wanted to kick out the big oil companies and was not pro-American business

• CIA killed him and it barely made American news
• Pro-American president was installed, Hertades, and oil companies kept drilling

Torrijos of Panama was also killed by the CIA for standing up to America and big business

• Replaced by Noriega who was pro-US

Global empire was simply a path to increased profits

In the 80s, overwhelming emphasis of de-regulation was greed and this was adopted by the World Bank

Noriega, the new Panamanian president, was buddies with the head of the CIA

US unilaterally bombed Panama in 1989 in an unprovoked attack on civilians

• The US army prohibited the press and red cross from entering the bombed area for 3 days while soldiers burned the casualties
• Press coverage was limited

Iraq was important to the US in the 80s and 90s not only because of oil but also water and geopolitics (water was super important for energy companies and US execs wanted to privatize them for their own greed)

US ran same exact playbook in Venezuela in 2001, the same as Iran 50 years earlier to topple the government and it was about oil

Americans deny slavery and yet the global empire enslaves more people than the Romans and all the colonial powers before them

The ability to print currency gives the US immense power. It means they can make loans that can never get repaid and that they can accumulate huge debts

Story in the New York Times in 2003 that Bechtel would rebuild Iraq (exactly like Blackrock and others are doing in Ukraine)

We have convinced ourselves that all economic growth benefits humanity and the greater the growth, the widespread the benefits. And that people who stoke the fires of growth should be rewarded while those at the fringers should be exploited

• This concept has been used to justify all manners of piracy - torture, pillage and kill innocent people in Iran, Panama, Colombia, Iraq and elsewhere
• This is allowed to continue as long as you show economic growth. Thanks to the ‘biased’ science of forecasting and statistics, if you bomb a city and build it, data shows a huge spike in economic growth
• The real story is WE ARE LIVING A LIE!!

The empire depends on the corporatocracy - the banks, corporations and governments and is not a conspiracy

‘How do you rise up against a system that appears to provide you with food, a house, car, clothes, electricity and healthcare while 24k people starve a day and millions more hate you or the policies executed by those you elect?’

All of our media is armed and manipulated by major corporations and they are part of the corporatocracy

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