Confessions of an Economic Hitman
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I’ve been reading a book by John Perkins entitled Confessions of an Economic Hitman. For students of international political economy, the themes developed in this book are not completely revelatory, but Perkins’ personal anecdotes certainly differentiate his book from the more ‘academic’ books on this subject. In essence, Perkins blows the whistle on US economic imperialism and the lengths the US state machinery is prepared to go to in order to serve the interests of corporate America. For the unitiated it provides some useful insights into postwar US foreign policy. For Republican supporters and US citizens who don’t travel outside of their country it will be absolute hogwash. For examples of each group take a look at the customer reviews on Amazon … people seem to give one star or five! For me is was three and a half stars. It started well, but then I realised Perkins was starting to irritate me with his hypocrisy and self-aggrandising. Page 218 was final straw when he describes how he sells his alternative energy business to an oil company … “part of me felt like a traitor” he says. This in and of itself doesn’t sound so bad, but at this point he has sold his soul for the umpteenth time and it has become a little tedious.
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