The economic hit-man

Max Bound

“Economic Hit Men 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. They play a game as old as Empire but one that has taken on terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.”

THIS is the life story of the author who worked as an Economic Hit Man for the U.S. establishment.

It is both a story of what he actually did in many countries and of his fears, regrets and agonising about blowing the whistle. His fear for the future of the world in which his young daughter and her contemporaries will be forced to live, if the practices he and his colleagues indulge in remain hidden and continue, finally gave him the courage to have this book published.

And any informed and thinking reader, when they have read his book, will realise that courage, on the part of both writer and publisher were essential. It is a very loud and clear whistle.

Economic Hit Men (EHMs) in the words of Perkins: “… are crafty we do not carry swords.… armor or clothes that set us apart … We appear humble normal. … talk with local papers about the wonderful humanitarian things we are doing. We are on the record, in the open. Or so we portray ourselves and so are we accepted … We seldom resort to anything illegal because the system itself is built on subterfuge, and the system is by definition legitimate.”

Perkins then continues:- “However — and this is a very large caveat — if we fail, an even more sinister breed steps in, ones we EHMs refer to as the jackals, men who trace their heritage 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, … young Americans are sent in to kill and to die.” ( Prologue Page XX1)

There are potential readers of this revealing book who might find it hard to believe that this is the reality of the American Empire which they have been tutored to see as a great democracy. However, anyone who was tuned to SBS at 8.30 p.m. on Tuesday January 23rd 2007 and watched “Kidnapped By the CIA” will likely see the Perkins book as a further evidence as to the real character of the American system of rule over the world. Kidnapping by the CIA and secret American prisons in Europe have been revealed by a group of European Parliamentarians and these facts were made clear in this SBS program.

To return to Perkins’ book. First its back page summary makes the following comments: “Economic Hit Men 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. They play a game as old as Empire but one that has taken on terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.”

The comment continues on to say: “ John Perkins should know —he was an economic hit man for an international consulting firm that worked to convince poorer countries to accept enormous development loans — and and to make sure that such projects were contracted to US companies. Once these countries were saddled with huge debts, the American government would request their ‘pound of flesh’ in favours, including access to natural resources, military cooperation and political support.”

On page 212 of the book Perkins explains how such a system can continue to function. He writes: “Under normal circumstances we would run the risk of eventually decimating our own funds; after all, no creditor can afford too many defaulted loans. However ours are not normal circumstances. The United State prints currency that is not backed by gold. Indeed, it is not backed by anything other than a general worldwide confidence in our economy and our ability to marshal the forces and resources of the empire we have created to support us.”

Perkins goes on to reveal potential weaknesses in this system and how vulnerable it is to developments like the growth in the strength of the European Euro, and some possible developments in Asia. He concludes that certain developments would mean: “The United States would suddenly find itself in a most precarious situation”. (p.p. 212-13 )

There are many pages of revealing writing about U.S. interference in the internal affairs of Indonesia, countries in what is called the Middle East and in Africa, South and Central America in this book. The interference involves bribery, torture and rape, plus other forms of corruption and criminal acts, including murder.

On page 214 after discussing several aspects of the situation of and in Iraq and Saudi Arabia Perkins writes: “As I read those articles, I could not help but wonder how many other people knew, as I did, that Saddam would still be in charge if he had played the game as the Saudis had. He would have his missiles and chemical plants; we would have built them for him, and our people would be in charge of upgrading and servicing them. It would be a very sweet deal — even as Saudi Arabia had been.”

My only comment is that American and other Western Oil companies and governments’ initial promotion of and support for the bloody dictator Saddam is well known and documented. And this knowledge gives strong credibility to the above view of the real reason for the invasion of Iraq.

The above quotes from Perkins present some examples of what has/is currently happening in several countries around the world in trouble because of American influence and interference in their internal affairs. As Perkins reveals it is the countries with oil under their soil, or which hold some geographically strategic position, like Panama, which are most likely to be the victims.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man Pub: Ebury Press, 2005

Max Bound is an Octogenarian with life long experience as a social-political activist including over 30 years as an environmental activist. He is retired from a working life as a labourer, coal miner, tram conductor, organiser, building worker — and after mature age tertiary studies and receiving a B A in Environmental Design and Graduate Diploma in Urban planning, work as a planner, Research Officer and Coordinator.