Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

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Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (Engl. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is) an autobiographical book by John Perkins in 2004. It was filmed in 2007.

content

The publication deals with the history of the author's career with the consulting firm Chas. T. Main (now part of Parsons Corporation ). Before he was hired by this company, he interviewed the US National Security Agency (NSA). Perkins claims that this interview was, in effect, an independent security review that led to his subsequent hiring by Einar Greve, an employee of the company (and alleged NSA liaison, which Greve denies) to - by his own description - an "Economic Hit Man ”(EHM).

According to his book, Perkins' role was to persuade the political and economic elite of underdeveloped countries to borrow huge amounts of development aid from institutions such as the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Burdened with huge debts that they could never hope to repay, these countries have been forced to bow to US political pressure on various occasions. Perkins describes how the developing countries were effectively politically neutralized and their income and wealth disparity ( Gini coefficient ) was pushed up ever further. This strategy permanently damaged the economies of these countries. Perkins talks about his meetings with various celebrities, including Graham Greene and Omar Torrijos . The author describes the role of an EHM as follows:

“Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the world out of trillions of dollars . They are shoving money from the World Bank and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as other foreign "aid" organizations, into the coffers of large corporations and the pockets of some wealthy families who control the earth's natural resources. Their tools include fake balance sheets , fake elections , commissions , extortion, sex and murder. You are playing a game that is as old as imperialism , but which has taken on new and terrible dimensions in the age of globalization . "

The afterword of the 2006 English edition contains a criticism of the current debt cancellation of the Third World by the G8 states. Perkins complains that the proposed terms for this debt relief are forcing these countries to sell their health, education, energy, water, and other infrastructure to private corporations. These countries would also have to stop their subsidies for domestic companies, but on the other hand they would have to accept the continuation of subsidies to some G8 companies by the USA and other G8 states, as well as the establishment of trade barriers on imports , which threaten G8 industries . The events in Bolivia and Tanzania are cited as examples of the effects of these proposed conditions.

reception

Jim Garrison, who founded the State of the World Forum with Mikhail Gorbachev , noted:

“Anyone who knows how the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund work could confirm that what John Perkins describes in his book is fundamentally true. There is a reason why our development aid and all the efforts made by the World Bank and the Monetary Fund are making the situation worse, not improving: Everything is designed not to help the poorest, but to simply use these countries to further enrich Western companies. That's how the hare goes. "

Deutschlandradio writes:

“If you didn't know so much about the illegal activities of the US secret services to destabilize governments, to overthrow unpopular heads of state, you would put the confessions of this so-called economic hit man on the big pile of conspiracy theories. [...] The result is a committed admission of guilt, at times very simplistic, moralizing, generalizing. Instead of concrete and new evidence: Confessions and pages long lists of well-known backgrounds that have already been printed elsewhere. Despite many details, the really hard facts are missing, sensational revelations are searched in vain. You have to believe him - or not. "

The Deutsche Welle judges:

“Instead, one could expect a little more details about the loan transactions described from an insider. But Perkins does not provide an analysis of the economic basis of his actions. He can't come up with sensational revelations either. Perhaps this is also due to the fact that neither Perkins nor his publisher have fun paying horrific claims for damages. Those who leave things in the rough and rely on published sources can hardly be prosecuted. Holiday reading for those who thought development policy was, in principle, supported by noble motives and would sometimes fail due to technical mistakes. For those who have already lost this illusion, the book does not bring much new information. "

expenditure

  • Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2004, ISBN 0-452-28708-1
  • Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Out and about in the service of the business mafia. Translated from the English by Hans Freundl and Heike Schlatterer. Riemann, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-570-50066-7 ; Goldmann, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-442-15424-1
  • The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2016, ISBN 978-1626566743 - explained in 14 additional chapters and in the form of a 30-page list of Hit Man activities from 2004 to 2015.

literature

  • Thomas Schulz: White-collar crime: Confessions of a killer . In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 2005, pp. 86 ff . ( online ).

Movie

  • Apology of an Economic Hit Man. Direction and script: Stelios Kouloglou . Greece 2007

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dominique Gradenwitz: Confessions of an economic killer. (No longer available online.) In: 3sat / Kulturzeit . March 22, 2005, archived from the original on November 1, 2005 ; Retrieved April 13, 2011 ( copy , video ). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.3sat.de
  2. ↑ Johannes Kaiser: "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man". John Perkins was an economic killer on behalf of the US secret service . In: Deutschlandradio Kultur . April 20, 2005
  3. ↑ Christoph Fleischmann: Book tip: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.dw-world.de  In: Deutsche Welle . September 16, 2005
  4. ↑ Apology of an Economic Hit Man in the Internet Movie Database (English)