Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: The shocking story of how America really took over the world

I'll keep this short for now as I am just stating very briefly what I think, but I will edit this into a full review at a later date. This very is as stated, very compelling. It is in equal parts deeply saddening and inspiring. It is a little light on in depth details of certain situations but strikes me as a compromise between the weighty details of historical events and the authors own impressions of them from his very particular standpoint. There are other books which delve a lot deeper than this one; though I will say that most of them have been written since and probably in response to this one. It does seem as though the subject matter of the book might be a little 'dumbed down' for (forgive me) an American audience. Not that I am in any way inferring that 'Americans' would be any less capable of reading such a book, but that the view of an average 'American' on politics or world affairs may be ever so slightly to the right of ours in the UK and as such, they as an audience be a little less receptive or sympathetic to some of the views presented in this book. Never the less, I would say that this book was a very good starting for anyone who wanted to get a grapple on why things are the way they are in the world today. I would suggest it as an absolute must read for anyone who feels that the state of the world today is not quite as we all would wish. As I say, I will tidy this review up and improve upon it at a later date.

I'm not quite sure what to think of this book. Why? I recently read a book titled 'Great Controversy' by White. It was written about a hundred years before John Perkins wrote this book. Now, the two books are worlds apart, until you come towards the end of White's book, (and you sure have to hang in there and read the whole book), then all of a sudden, Perkins starts to make sense. John Perkins does well in this book! It's more of an overview ... an itroduction to EHM's. If you first read White and then Perkins, you have to admit that perkins hits the nail on the head - or was it White?. But just on it's own this book is a brilliant read. I like it and unless you are 'one of them' you will enjoy it too.

An incredible read that I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm not American so a lot of the concepts in this book were new to me and it served its purposes for beginners (that's not to say that its a book which only beginners can enjoy). John makes the link between his employment with the Ministry of Defence and America's new spin on global imperialism, which are a lot more linked than I realised. I also like the fact that he admits he himself was propagating the problem and is at least honest about some of the bad things he did towards this end (probably not all though, eh?)

This book makes me think of the analagy of there being nothing worse than a reformed smoker, to preach about the perils of inhaling. Perkins falls into this category very well and at times I found his confessional style more than a little hypocritical. I also agree with other reviewers who note that it is hard to distinguish between fact and fiction in his recollections, of his very charmed life, which he does his best to dress up as some sort of hair shirt experience. Mea Culpa boo hoo my heart bleeds for you !! Having said that I did find this an interesting read and have no doubt that much of what he alludes to is based upon well known govermental "foreign policy" practices, a stark reminder of the world we live in today. It is as direct result of actions by Perkins and his ilk that the protesters on both sides of the Atlantic e.g (anti Wall St and City Banker bashers) are trying to change in their own direct way. Perkins has chosen to write a confessional and continue to add to his no doubt considerable assets - perhaps in a bid to clense his soul, whilst still managing to polish both his halo & ego ??. Definitely worth a read but I am not sure that it will actually change the world he appears to have helped create. So all we can conclude is that history tells us that when The King is dead, we proclaim long live the KIng or should it be Here comes the new boss - same as the old boss ...... Discuss.

This book exposes how the US regime intentionally pushes vast sums in 'aid' onto developing countries. Of course the cash is a loan, not a gift, and corrupt foreign leaders are 'persuaded' to bury their countries under mountains of debt in a range of ways. There is of course bribery, blackmail and coercion, but also the supposedly helpful 'advisors' sent by the US have instructions to vastly exaggerate the potential economic returns of any infrastructure investment. Of course, only US businesses are allowed to supply the equipment and know how. Once hooked, poor countries find that it is impossible to even pay the eye watering interest imposed, so are forced to surrender to the US the very resources they were hoping to exploit for their own people. This is not new, an unholy alliance of US regimes and corporations has been doing this throughout Latin America since the 19th century, and have spread their grasping tentacles throughout the world. The grotesque irony is the way they are now accusing the Chinese of doing the very same thing they themselves have done for so long. As yet though the Chinese have not resorted to staging coups, assassinating elected leaders, imposing tyrannical regimes to do their bidding, invading and illegally occupying countries, or simply reducing them to blood smeared rubble, all of which the US has done repeatedly.

Ich glaube nein. Es wird nur in sehr drastischer Weise gesagt, wie es funktioniert. Der US Normalbürger wird kaum was davon mitbekommen und von Presse und allen anderen Medien entsprechend eingelullt. Was der John Perkins erzählt ist schon wenig schön und jeder sollte sich diese Lektüre aneignen. Die Politik der USA ist ohne Skrupel und es geht immer um Gewinnmaximierung, unter welchen Bedingungen auch immer. Es gibt auch andere negative Politiker, aber die USA wird in einem nie gekannten Maße von der Industrie geführt und gegängelt. Es ist ein Horror. Man muss nur die vergangenen 10 Jahre ansehen, die waren mit Paradestückchen behaftet. Irak-Krieg Nr. 2 - aufgebaut auf einer Lüge (und was ist daraus entstanden?) Weltwirtschaftskrise 2007 - der Krieg der Banken -, etc. Mein Vertrauen in die US Politik ist mehr als erschüttert.

Interessante

Very good book.

J'ai lu ce livre dans sa traduction française et je l'ai trouvé si instructif que j'ai décidé de le commandé dans sa version d'origine pour le partager avec mes amis anglophones. La livraison - par bateau - a pris plus de temps que prévu mais lorsque j'ai contacté le vendeur pour lui faire part de mon étonnement, celui-ci s'est empressé de me répondre avec professionnalisme et courtoisie pour me rassurer. J'ai apprécié sa réactivité et l'intérêt qu'il porte à la demande d'un client même si en l’occurrence le prix de la commande ne dépassait pas 2,60 €.

Muy ilustrativo y dinámico. No se hace nada pesado y relata de forma muy amena una situación muy compleja desde la experiencia en primera persona de su autor. Muy recomendable