Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, By John Perkins. 

This book explains how large businesses, the American government, the World Bank et al collaborate to keep smaller countries poor and in debt, by convincing the leaders of developing countries to take on loans they could not possibly expect to repay maybe 30 years down the line. 

In the case of the writer, the product he sold was electricity. He would make proposals to government leaders with inflated expectations of growth and profitability. The catch – the United States would build it and costs would be paid by bank loans from the World Bank. 

And so when the leader takes it on, he sees that the electricity only caters to rich people, making the poor even poorer. And then there’s this debt to pay that keeps the developing country from using the money to build programs for the poor. In essence, America owns them and its global empire is expanded and the American company that builds the electric plant makes a lot of money to boot. 

The author does this in Indonesia, Ecuador, Panama, Saudi Arabia, and other countries. Sometimes he gets a shot of conscience and tries to tweak an agreement. He did this in Panama changing things in the agreement to ensure that the electricity would actually be designed to benefit the poor. He also speaks of his experience in Saudi Arabia, a country that is wealthy because they have oil, and they continually raise its cost, over and over again. The goal of the company the author worked for was to make money and persuade the country's leadership to accept their advice, to the point where the country will become "owned" by the United States. Saudi, for example, was owned when the two countries agreed that the US would build all the infrastructure that Saudi needs. However, the money for all these projects was placed in American banks, and both countries had to decide what projects the money would be spent on.

I enjoyed this book because the information is truly compelling and well written. It explains a lot of global events that we had been seeing in the past from a more in-depth and more informed point of view. I also loved learning about countries in South America, about rain forests, about indigenous cultures in these countries.

I was truly intrigued by what happened in Saudi Arabia, in the House of Saud, and how America made much, much more despite a less than perfect situation. Finally, there is the story of Iraq and Saddam, let me not even begin. This is a good read. Whether you agree with the writer or not, it is worth one's time. 

The future is best anticipated by being informed about current history. There is so much to learn, and so many viewpoints to consider. Anyone who is interested in entering the world of diplomacy should read this. Also anyone interested in history, or international economics. I actually think this book would be interesting to anybody at all.