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Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (ISBN 0452287081) is an auto-biographical book written by John Perkins and published in 2004. It tells the story of his career with consulting firm Chas. T. Main, where he was employed after being independently screened by the National Security Agency (NSA) and subsequently hired by a member of the firm (who was also an alleged NSA liason) to become a self-described "Economic Hit Man."

According to his book, Perkins' function was to convince the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the World Bank and USAID. Saddled with huge debts they could not hope to pay, these countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the United States on a variety of issues. Perkins describes how developing nations were effectively neutralised politically, had their wealth gaps driven wider and economies crippled in the long run. In this capacity Perkins recounts his meetings with some prominent individuals, including Graham Greene and Omar Torrijos. Perkins describes the role of an EHM as follows:

Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.

The epilogue to the 2006 edition provides a rebuttal to the current move by the G8 nations to forgive Third World debt. Perkins charges that the proposed conditionalities for this debt forgiveness require countries to sell their health, education, electric, water and other public services to corporations. Those countries would also have to discontinue subsidies and trade restrictions that support local business, but accept the continued subsidation of certain G8 businesses by the US and other G8 countries, and the erection of trade barriers on imports that threaten G8 industries. Recent events in Bolivia and Tanzania are cited as examples of the effects of these proposed conditionalities.

Criticism

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Some of the book's critics have questioned whether Perkins makes a significant contribution the debate on global finance and the development of the Third Word. For instance, columnist Mark Engler of In These Times, has written that "the actual content of Perkins' admissions proves distressingly thin." According to the New York Times, "the book's popularity seems driven more by the mix of cloak-and-dagger atmospherics and Mr. Perkins's Damascene conversion" than by insight into "the larger issue of America's role in emerging economies."

Columnist Sebastian Mallaby of the Washington Post reacted sharply to Perkins' book: "This man is a frothing conspiracy theorist, a vainglorious peddler of nonsense, and yet his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, is a runaway bestseller." Mallaby, who spent 13 years writing for the London Economist and wrote a favorable biography of World Bank chief James Wolfensohn, holds that Perkins's conception of international finance is "largely a dream" and that his "basic contentions are flat wrong."

Other sources, including articles in the New York Times and Boston Magazine as well as a press release issued by the United States Department of State, have pointed out that Perkins does not offer documentary or testimonial evidence to corroborate the claim that he was hired by the NSA to deliberately saddle Third World countries with unpayable debts. The press release by the State Department states that the NSA "is a cryptological (codemaking and codebreaking) organization, not an economic organization" and that its missions do not involve "anything remotely resembling placing economists at private companies in order to increase the debt of foreign countries."

Perkins's first boss at Chas. T. Main, Einar Greve, initially declared to journalists that "basically story is true" and that "what John's book says is, there was a conspiracy to put all these countries on the hook, and that happened" , but he subsequently denied Perkins's allegation that he ever worked as a liaison with the NSA and contradicted other claims made in Perkins's book, stating that Perkins "has convinced himself that a lot of this stuff is true."

Critics, including Sebastian Mallaby and the author of the release by the State Department, have also pointed out that, in his public remarks and previously published books, Perkins has subscribed to various non-mainstream views. His published works include books about South American tribal culture that deal with shamanistic techniques for creating self-empowerment, techniques to enhance health and longevity, as well as first hand accounts of metaphysical "travelling" through visions & dream wanderings. Mark Engler questions Perkins's "New Age leanings," and accuses him of "delving into a type of essentialism that, thankfully, has been long banished from university anthropology departments."

Though no documentation is presented, the State Department release refers to a presentation at a bookstore, where Perkins allegedly asserted that the US Government was involved in the assassinations of John and Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lennon and several US senators who died in plane crashes, and expressed concern regarding inconsistencies in the US investigation of the events surrounding the September 11 attacks of 2001. Though any possible justification for these beliefs is not fully addressed, the author of the State Department release identifies Perkins as a conspiracy theorist.

References

1. Engler, Mark, "Failures of a Hit Man," In These Times, April 18, 2005.
2. Thomas Jr., Landon, "Confessing to the Converted," New York Times, Sec. 3, Col, 1, p. 1, February 19, 2006.
3. Mallaby, Sebastian, "The Facts Behind the 'Confessions'," Washington Post, p. A15, February 27, 2006.
4. U.S. Department of State International Information Programs, "Confessions – or Fantasies – of an Economic Hit Man?" Identifying Misinformation, February 2, 2006.
5. Tkacik, Maureen, "The True Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," Boston Magazine, July 2005.

External links

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• John Perkins talks about his book with NOW's David Brancaccio (video)
• Article in The Guardian
• Rebuttal from the U.S. State Department International Information Program
• Washington Post opinion piece

• 2004 books
• Autobiographies