Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins

Would America purposely lend third world countries so much money that they could never repay it, then once they have them over the barrel, make them do our bidding? This is the premise of John Perkins' book Confessions of an Economic Hitman, in short, he is calling the US a global mafia don.

Perkins worked for Main, a large US company very similar to Bechtel and Hailbutron where he was a self-proclaimed economic hitman. His job was to go into countries like Ecuador, Iraq, or Panama and asses what it would take to industrialize these countries with modern power grids, roads, water treatment plants, etc. Once he gave his assessment of what the country needed to generate enough electricity for everyone in the country to run their TVs, etc. the US and the World Bank would offer up huge loans to spur these third world countries into the modern world. Only catch is, you have to hire US companies to do all the work. Also, the prices were hugely inflated and of course the countries really did not have the means to pay off the loans in the first place. It is at this point that the US government uses its new found leverage to demand the countries leaders keep America's interests top of mind. So if we want to put an air force base in your country, you won't object. If we need more oil from you, you'll open the pipeline. If we want your vote in the United Nations, we get it. And if you don't play along, you could disappear or die in a mysterious plane crash (ala Omar Torrijos, former President of Panama). If they can't get rid of you, then you get invaded, see Panama by GWH Bush and Iraq by GW Bush. Once you have been invaded, a new regime is installed that is more favorable to the US and a large US company, like Haliburton, gets a no bid contract to rebuild the country (or they could just help you kill your dad like the Shah of Iran).

Pretty dark and sinister stuff. If you are a conspiracy theorist you will love this book. If you are a right wing, industrialist you won't. Where this book is really powerful is when it gets you to question some of the underlying assumptions of the capitalist economy. For example, is industrialisation always progress? Is bigger is always better? Can we enjoy a great quality of life without destroying the lives of others? And finally you realise that America may have done some stuff over the years, that people told us was in our national interest, but made the rest of the world righteously mad.