Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

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John Perkins interviewed on Radio Liberty 19 Jan 05

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins is astonishing evidence of the financial and economic workings of the New World Order. It was written by an insider whose conscience forced him to pen a public confession about the real purpose of Western loans to developing countries. The publication of Perkin's book follows the resignation of the World Bank's Chief Economist, Joseph Stiglitz, in 1999 which was later followed by the leaking of World Bank documents detailing their plans to force developing countries to sell off their natural resources and national industries to Western multi-nationals. Working in a private consulting firm, Perkins was one of the "economic hit men" who carried out the plan.

Like the World Bank documents obtained by BBC journalist Greg Palast, Perkins describes a classical conspiracy between government and big business. The U.S. National Security Agency recruited and trained the economic hit men to carry out their duties through private consulting firms and other corporations. The beneficiaries of the conspiracy were the international bankers and shareholders in the multi-national corporations.

Unable to repay the loans organized by the hit men, developing countries had to surrender their national resources to their Western creditors. How were these developing countries forced into bankruptcy, especially when in receipt of all this investment? C hapters 4 and 5 of The Police State Road Map attempt to answer this question. In all cases the money went directly to governments, not to entrepreneurs. These governments were either too corrupt or hostile to the free-market to encourage prosperity. 5 out of 6 billion people in the world today do not have the basic property rights enjoyed in the West.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man reveals the grand design for a "great trust" of Western banks and corporations which will soon have a global monopoly over the means of production. This is the same supra-national force behind political globalism, working through now familiar organizations such as the Bilderberg Group and Council on Foreign Relations. The integration of global political and financial power wielded by a shadow ruling elite of international bankers and their political minions is the meaning of the term "global fascism" and more generally, the "New World Order. " The orthodox description of this integration is "public-private partnership", championed by such luminaries as Prince Charles. Whatever the terminology, the end result is the same: The end of the free market and democracy worldwide.

Confessions of an Economic Hitman

One of the most valuable and dangerous books of our time

An analysis by G. Edward Griffin, Freedom Force International

[Abridged version. Click here for full article -Ed.]

This is the autobiography of a man whose job was to entice leaders of under-developed nations into accepting loans from the IMF and World Bank. The enticement was that the money would be used to expand their infrastructure of roads, railways, electrical power, and communications and, thereby, bring prosperity to these countries. He did this as a corporate economist who deliberately exaggerated the potential for economic return on these investments. Although his projects were always described as humanitarian, the real objectives were to generate lucrative contracts for multinational construction companies and to lure nations into loans they could never repay. He knew that a few politicians and well-connected families within those countries would become wealthy while the standard of living for most of the people would decline. When repayment of loans became impossible, the lending agencies and corporations then would move in to take control of the nation�s resources and government, and that, too, was part of the plan. In other words, in the modern world, conquest by the sword has given way to conquest by the loan, and Perkins was a key strategist in the high command of the conquering forces.

THE MASTER PLAN

It is Perkins� conscience that makes this book essential reading, because that is what has driven him to expose the inner workings of the corporatocracy he served. Only an insider could tell this story. If an independent researcher or journalist said these things, the public would never believe them. Yet, coming from a credible defector, they take on a stark reality that cannot be easily ignored:

There were two primary objectives of my work. First, I was to justify huge international loans that would funnel money back to MAIN [the firm for which Perkins worked] and other U.S. companies (such as Bechtel, Halliburton, Stone & Webster, and Brown & Root) through massive engineering and construction projects. Second, I would work to bankrupt the countries that received those loans (after they paid MAIN and the other U.S. contractors, of course) so that they would be forever beholden to their creditors, and so they would present easy targets when we needed favors, including military bases, UN votes, or access to oil and other natural resources. (p. 15.)

The unspoken aspect of every one of these projects was that they were intended to create large profits for the contractors and to make a handful of wealthy and influential families in the receiving countries very happy, while assuring the long-term financial dependence and therefore the political loyalty of governments around the world. The larger the loan, the better. The fact that the debt burden placed on a country would deprive its poorest citizens of health, education, and other social services for decades to come was not taken into consideration. (pp. 15, 16.)

The subtlety of this modern empire building puts the Roman centurions, the Spanish conquistadors, and the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European colonial powers to shame. We EHMs [Economic Hit Men} are crafty; we learned from history. Today, we do not carry swords. We do not wear armor or clothes that set us apart. In countries like Ecuador, Nigeria, and Indonesia, we dress like local schoolteachers and shop owners. In Washington and Paris, we look like government bureaucrats and bankers. We appear humble, normal. We visit project sites and stroll through impoverished villages. We profess altruism, talk with local papers about the wonderful humanitarian things we are doing. We cover the conference tables of government committees with our spreadsheets and financial projections, and we lecture at the Harvard Business School about the miracles of macroeconomics. We are on the record, in the open. Or so we portray ourselves and so we are accepted. It is how the system works. We seldom resort to anything illegal because the system itself is built on subterfuge, and the system is by definition legitimate.

However � and this is a very large caveat � if we fail, an even more sinister breed steps in, ones we EHMs refer to as jackals, men who trace their heritage directly to those earlier empires. The jackals are always there, lurking in the shadows. When they emerge, heads of state are overthrown or die in violent �accidents.� And if by chance the jackals fail, as they failed in Afghanistan and Iraq, then the old models resurface. When the jackals fail, young Americans are sent in to kill and to die.� (pp. xx, xxi.)

John Perkins interviewed by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now

9th November 2004.

Extract from transcript. Click here for full transcript.

AMY GOODMAN: How did you become one [ an economic hitman] ? Who did you work for?

JOHN PERKINS: Well, I was initially recruited while I was in business school back in the late sixties by the National Security Agency, the nation's largest and least understood spy organization; but ultimately I worked for private corporations. The first real economic hit man was back in the early 1950's, Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of Teddy, who overthrew of government of Iran, a democratically elected government, Mossadegh�s government who was Time's magazine person of the year; and he was so successful at doing this without any bloodshed -- well, there was a little bloodshed, but no military intervention, just spending millions of dollars and replaced Mossadegh with the Shah of Iran. At that point, we understood that this idea of economic hit man was an extremely good one. We didn't have to worry about the threat of war with Russia when we did it this way. The problem with that was that Roosevelt was a C.I.A. agent. He was a government employee. Had he been caught, we would have been in a lot of trouble. It would have been very embarrassing. So, at that point, the decision was made to use organizations like the C.I.A. and the N.S.A. to recruit potential economic hit men like me and then send us to work for private consulting companies, engineering firms, construction companies, so that if we were caught, there would be no connection with the government.

JOHN PERKINS: ........ � And I have to tell you, Amy, that, you know, it�s an extraordinary story from the standpoint of -- It's almost James Bondish, truly, and I mean--

AMY GOODMAN: Well that's certainly how the book reads.

JOHN PERKINS: Yeah, and it was, you know? And when the National Security Agency recruited me, they put me through a day of lie detector tests. They found out all my weaknesses and immediately seduced me. They used the strongest drugs in our culture, sex, power and money, to win me over. I come from a very old New England family, Calvinist, steeped in amazingly strong moral values. I think I, you know, I�m a good person overall, and I think my story really shows how this system and these powerful drugs of sex, money and power can seduce people, because I certainly was seduced. And if I hadn't lived this life as an economic hit man, I think I�d have a hard time believing that anybody does these things. And that's why I wrote the book, because our country really needs to understand, if people in this nation understood what our foreign policy is really about, what foreign aid is about, how our corporations work, where our tax money goes, I know we will demand change.

John Perkins Interviewed by Alex Jones, PrisonPlanet.tv >>

31 December 2004