The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: Edition 2

John Perkins

Feb 2016 · Berrett-Koehler Publishers

About this ebook

Featuring 15 explosive new chapters, this new edition of the New York Times bestseller brings the story of Economic Hit Men up-to-date and, chillingly, home to the U.S.―but it also gives us hope and the tools to fight back.

The previous edition of this now-classic book revealed the existence and subversive manipulations of "economic hit men. John Perkins wrote that they are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. In Perkins's case the tool was debt-convincing strategically important countries to borrow huge amounts of money for enormous, development projects that served the very rich while driving the country deeper into poverty and debt. And once indebted, these countries could be controlled.

In this latest edition, Perkins provides revealing new details about how he and others did their work. But more importantly, in an explosive new section he describes how the EHM tools are being used around the world more widely than ever-even in the U. S. itself. The cancer has metastasized, yet most people still aren't aware of it. Fear and debt drive the EHM system. We are hammered with messages that terrify us into believing that we must pay any price, assume any debt, to stop the enemies who, we are told, lurk at our doorsteps. The EHM system-employing false economics, bribes, surveillance, deception, debt, coups, assassinations, unbridled military power-has become the dominant system of economics, government, and society today. It has created what Perkins calls a Death Economy. But Perkins offers hope: he concludes with dozens of specific, concrete suggestions for actions all of us can take to wrest control of our world away from the economic hit men, and help give birth to a Life Economy.

Ratings and reviews

Not much more there than what we already knew or suspected. Still worth ready if only to validate reality. Just keep in mind China, Russia, and the rest of the world play the same game. It's human nature we need to change. And good luck with that.

This book says basically the same thing over and over in slightly different ways. Eventually, though I agreed with the subject matter, I began to resent feeling that I was being brainwashed. Then the ending, things we can do, was much weaker than I expected.

Positives: He was in the room where it happened in some of the most momentous deals that created the circumstances of wealth and poverty around the world. Things that slowed the developing world down. No one has effectively disputed his personal accounts of what he did, where, when and for whom. As a reporter of his own actions, he seems to be reliable. I am grateful he came forward and told his story. Note the author is very judgemental. I wish more people were somemtimes. But some people get turned off and think it's unprofessional to care too much, or call people out for misbehavior. Negatives: The author is not politically sophisticated, and sometimes has weird ideas about how things work. He has attempted to make a James Bond start, probably to sell books.

About the author

John Perkins has written nine books that have been on the New York Times bestseller list for more than seventy weeks and translated into over thirty languages.