The red pill or the blue pill? (book recommendation)

[OKDem08]

I would like to recommend a book I just finished: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins.

It's the true story of John Perkins, a chief economist at a Boston strategic-consulting firm, who was an "economic hit man" for 10 yrs, helping US intelligence agencies & multinationals cajole & blackmail foreign leaders into serving US foreign policy & awarding lucrative contracts to American business. "Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars". Perkins writes that his economic projections cooked the books Enron-style to convince foreign governments to accept billions of dollars of loans from the World Bank & other institutions to build dams, airports, electric grids, and other infrastructure he knew they couldn't afford. The loans were given on condition that construction & engineering contracts went to U.S. companies. Often, the money would simply be transferred from one bank account in Washington, D.C., to another one in New York or San Francisco. The deals were smoothed over with bribes for foreign officials, but it was the taxpayers in the foreign countries who had to pay back the loans. When their governments couldn't do so, as was often the case, the US or its henchmen @ the World Bank or International Monetary Fund would step in & essentially place the country in trusteeship, dictating everything from its spending budget to security agreements and even its United Nations votes.

Wow! The shocking thing for me was that this guy was recruited following graduation by the NSA & placed in a private sector position, essentially serving as gvt agt but via an intermediary. The position was structured in this manner to circumvent any pesky congressional investigations of his actions! He was advised up-front of the true intent of his services. He became unbelievably wealthy and then...developed a conscience.