Military occupations and colonializations have become too risky in geopolitics. The solution was to use the private sector to reach the same goals for global power. US intelligence agencies would scout prospect Economic Hit Men (EHMs) who would be hired by international corporations. The EHMs would make nations financially depended on the US, as either the leaders would accept the loans or be removed by the US government. US corporations would gain the construction money, so no loan money would ever leave the US. Any scandal would be portrayed as corporate greed as they were paid by the private sector. The corporations would be paid by government counterparts with taxpayer money, while insulated from congressional oversight and public scrutiny. A system that allows the use of US power and influence without accountability. US empire composed of corporate power, a corporatocracy.

The job of Economic Hit Men (EHMs) is to justify large loans whose money will be used for massive corporate engineering and construction projects. Then work to bankrupt the countries who will then be beholden to creditors and will be forced to provide concessions. Propositioned leaders have a choice whether to accept US loans to indebt their countries, or have the CIA remove them. When the country cannot repay the loans, the country will be forced to give up resources such as oil and provide benefits to the creditors. Collusion of corporations, banks, and governments to coerce acceptance of debts which benefit the creditors at the expense of the debtors. A system creating long-term financial dependence which fosters political loyalty.

Fallacious and bias economic models are used to prove the debts will be useful. The models legitimize the debts. The models show that the whole country will benefit for a long time. In reality, only few in the country will benefit while resources are taken away from those who need it. In the debtor country, the financial burden will be on those most vulnerable, the poorest citizens as their access to resources and institutions will be limited to cover financial servicing fees. Few people in the debtor country will benefit, but the country as a whole will show an increase in economic production (GDP, formerly GNP). Economic progress in which the rich get richer while poor grow poorer.

Many people taking part of this system had rationalized their activities by claiming that they were protecting the US and fighting communism and terrorism. Perkins was part of this system and although had doubts, participated in enabling increased US power in many countries. This book is an attempt to make amends, hence his confessions.

Those who suffered under the imposed requirements by the US had been left with no other option but to seek help from US enemies, which ended up giving credence to US claims and punishments. The world is outraged by US circumvention of international law, but the people in the US are not aware of crimes committed by their government or what the world thinks of it. The press provides scant views on the issues due to pressure from the government. The system pretends to reduce threats to the US and increase US power, but results in increased threat to world security and destruction of US influence on geopolitics. Other countries are now taking a more pronounced and leading role in cooperating with international affairs because of the lack of trust in the US.

The way the system operates now is different but has the same results. The corporations convince governments to give them favorable tax and regulatory treatments. It is the US taxpayer who pays for the corporate subsidies. Money that is diverted from public institutions go to corporate funds. The corporations love receiving social programs that support them, but criticize social programs which do not directly benefit them. International corporations can easy move their production sites to different regions, as such, the corporations have huge bargaining power to influence governments to support their corporate views.

The book has a few problems which reduce the credibility of the claims made. 1) Written in a way that is very sympathetic of the author. The author keeps claiming that he felt bad about his participation in the system, and that it was his guilt that made him change and write about the system. Although he sometimes describes the benefits he received, it seems that the author wants forgiveness. The situation is indeed complex, but the way it is written seems like many times the sympathy is meant to remove himself from his actions. The continuous sympathizing tries to guilt the reader into making him a hero who was fighting against the system, which makes the sympathy seem credulous. He participated in a system that made him wealthy and continues to use the money generated from the corrupt system. The use of the money for institutions which help people seem to be justifications for the wealth to appear acceptable. 2) Many chapters are written about international affairs. The reader will be introduced to geopolitics at its worst. The problem is that there seems to be a lack of evidence and details around the events. The lack of information makes the situations appear conspiratorial. The author does acknowledge the conspiracy feel of the events, and does provide additional sources. The extreme duality of the descriptions makes them appear credulous. Believing the sequences of events is easy for someone who already has a negative view of US policies, with this book providing further justification.
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Fascinating read

This book sheds light on whats really happening jn the US’ dealings with other countries. A little lefty but if you can get past that its a very important book. It seems to me, however, the author doesn’t focus enough on the root of the problem. Instead he focuses primarily in symptoms. Maybe for good reasons...? ( )

An extremely important book to read for everyone. Atleast the last 5 chapters. ( )

This is a sad case of a 4-4.5 star book turned into a 3-3.5 book in the second addition, due to adding a bunch of "woke" to an already "woke hippie" book.

Essentially, it's a (questionably accurate) book about how in the 60s-70s closely government-affiliated multinationals were involved in a quasi-feudal political relationship between developing nations and the US (and the rest of the developed world). In the first edition this was somewhat tolerable and interesting, as it largely involved engineering/project management/construction companies and was somewhat interesting to learn about (as I'm more familiar with the modern forms of these). His thesis is basically that the process of pitching these projects is inherently corrupt, going to an elite in the nation and often with the intention of having the government default and then have various assets taken by the lender. Some of this was direct, but mostly via intermediaries like the World Bank and IMF. Lots of CIA assassination plots against wonderful leftist leaders, all development being bad, etc.

In the second edition, he updates to reflect the modern world with lots of asset managers, hedge funds, etc seeking returns. He still tries to imply these entities have some conspiratorial nefarious purpose rather than a simple profit-maximization goal. Then, the last 25% of the book is him being a generic boomer hippie and describing shamanism, environmentalism, etc.

If you're going to read this, just read the first 50% or so (which mostly corresponds to the original book), and take it with a very large grain of salt ( )

Definitely a good read, although at times he can get a bit boring - all those issues on remorse and his conscience, obviously. Still, it gives a great insight of what his job did and how contributed to change this world for the worse. At the end, there are also some suggestions on what to do to counteract the trend for us "normal" people, some I knew already, some new ones. The advice is going to be put to good use. ( )