ECONOMIC HIT MAN

[gateley]

The author of this book was on Coast to Coast with Ian Punnett last night. This is the recap from Coast to Coast's site. Although in print it may look a little tin foil hat-ish (maybe not) hearing the author was chilling and very believable and credible

Businessman and author John Perkins discussed his work as a former 'economic hit man.' Perkins said his job was to convince governments of third world countries to accept enormous loans from the World Bank (and other institutions) for large-scale infrastructure projects he knew they could not afford. This money did not go to the country taking the loan, Perkins said, explaining that U.S. corporations were guaranteed the contracts and thus received the loan money. When these countries failed to repay their loans, the U.S. government/companies could then demand from them cheap oil and other natural resources, or even U.N. votes, he noted. According to Perkins, this U.S.-led exploitation of foreign governments is a root cause of terrorism.

Perkins shared his belief that a "core plutocracy" made up of leaders from the biggest corporations actually run everything on the planet. He said politicians are beholden to them and they remain in charge regardless of which party is in control on Capitol Hill. Perkins also talked about why he wrote The Secret History of the American Empire, as well as provided details from the time he was sent to "corrupt" Omar Torrijos, the de facto ruler of Panama from 1968 to 1981. When Torrijos refused to cooperate, privately-contracted assassins called "jackals" were sent in to assassinate him, Perkins claimed.

www.coasttocoastam.com

If you're so inclined, you can hear the interview if you subscribe to Streamlink. You can get a one-month subscription for $7.

Also, here;s a link to Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Secret-History-American-Empire-Corruption/dp/052595015X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-2497031-7441467?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191159912&sr=8-1

If anyone else heard the show and is so inclined, please post your thoughts.

[CrispyQ]

1. "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins

was a book club title long ago when we had book club. Here's the thread of the discussion from April of '05:

"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"
by John Perkins – April 05
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=209&topic_id=1504

[gateley]

2. Thank you! DU is an AMAZING resource! nt

[gateley]

3. By the way, he has a follow-up book out now, which is probably why he was

on the show last night.

[bananas]

4. He's been on "Democracy Now!" a number of times

You can listen or watch the archives, or read the transcripts, for free: http://www.democracynow.org/search.pl?query=John+Perkins

[Fading Captain]

5. What's the deal with this guy?

Is he believable?

I bought the first book and gave it to my dad for Christmas.

I bought the second and started reading it, but man, he writes like Bruce Willis talks. I expected a nore scholarly memoir, the macho man BS in his book.

The style turned me off immediately and stained his credibility.

But perhaps I'm being unfair.