book review: confessions of an economic hitman

"We must shake ourselves awake. We who live in the most powerful nation history has ever known must stop worrying so much about the outcome of soap operas, football games, quarterly balance sheets, and the daily Dow Jones average, and must instead reevaluate who we are and where we want our children to end up."

John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hitman

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man tells the fascinating story of how one man was hired as part of a network of "economic hit man" whose role is to trick developing countries into accepting huge loans that benefit no one but the richest, while at the same time allowing huge corporations to get rich by building huge infrastructure projects. The books takes the reader across the world, from Indonesia to Panama, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and others.

Skepticism is good. I personally believe that one should be skeptical and critical of everything you hear, even - or maybe especially - if it comes from a view aligned with your own. I admit to share an agenda similar to Perkin's, namely that I'm against global corporate dominance and imperialism, but I still wanted to bring in a dose of skepticism and ask: Is Perkins' book believable?

I have a two part answer to that. You can separate the book into two layers: Perkin's life story (which are subjective), and historical facts (which are less subjective and can be further researched). I'm not particularly interested in Perkins life or his psychological struggles, nor am I interested in its precise veracity. As he admits, he had made some changes to the specific dialogues, and I suspect he might have made up some scenes that serve more rhetorical purposes, such as serving as a platform for discussion. This is just my speculation, and to the extent that those scenes are fabricated, I don't really care.

Then there are the historical facts, which center on whether something actually happened. For the historical facts, I urge the reader (skeptical or otherwise) to look it up. If you live in a free country, these sources are readily available, although I would not start at a high school or even college history textbook. I would maybe look into something more reliable.

Regarding whether such economic hit man actually exist, that's harder for me to prove here one way or the other. I have tried to do research into it, and nothing has come up to disprove Perkins, although the burden of proof is on him. This is like someone trying to write about a government cover-up of extraterrestials: of course you don't won't find anything 'cause it's a cover-up! Well, I would keep an open-mind about it, and do more research. Read more, look up his sources, look into the history of corporations, governments, etc. I am more inclined to think the Perkins is telling the truth, namely because I grew up in some of the places he mentioned, and it "rings true" to me, but that's as far as I have.

If nothing else, Perkins book may serve as a platform for dialogue, and whether you agree with his specific recounting of events, I think that globalization and corporate rule has had an adverse effect on the world can be substantiated.

Perkins style is not particularly interesting, but then again he's not an author. In fact, if he wrote with the eloquence of Dickens, I might be less inclined to believe him.
So, my final advice: Whatever your views, whoever you are, keep reading, researching, follow-up. We should be critical of all views, especially those we agree with, because we are more vulnerable to manipulation there.