Confessions
of an Economic Hit Man
Review
by
David Gracey
By John Perkins, San Francisco, Berrett and Koehler Publishers Inc.
The author spent most of his working life employed by MAIN (Chas T. Main Inc.), a firm which did consulting work for the World Bank and private US banks and corporations. His task was to investigate a target country, assess its potential for development, its capacity to utilize foreign investment, and to prepare a report incorporating recommendations for lending. His real task was “to convince third world countries to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development – loads much larger than necessary – and to guarantee that the development projects were contracted to US corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel. Once these countries were saddled with huge debts, the US government, and the international agencies allied with it, were able to control these economies and ensure that aid and other resources were channelled to...building a global empire” (p. 248).
Perkins’ basic thesis will surprise no one who is familiar with the growing body of literature on the World Bank and the IMF, notably Stiglitz’s Globalization and Its Discontents. However, Perkins details how the system operated on the ground. This book is the smoking gun.
The scenario is as follows. The foreign “consultants” work with the local and usually corrupt business and political elite. These individuals stand to benefit by siphoning off some of the loans – and often sending the funds offshore. They will also profit from the “development.” Export firms, for example, will benefit from better roads, harbours, and power systems. These companies will cream off the gains. and the working population will be left with the unrepayable debt plus interest. and with the cuts in social spending forced by repayment. If leaders are too honest and refuse to accept this mode of development, they can be coerced or eliminated (Arbenz, Mossadegh, Torrijos – the list is long). In Indonesia, after Sukarno had been replaced by Suharto, Perkins was told to “develop this master plan...make sure that the oil industry (foreign owned) gets whatever it needs...for the duration of this plan.” In Ecuador the ruling elite “saddled their country with huge debts borrowed from international banks on the promise of future oil revenues.” Huge construction contracts were awarded to US firms. Oil lands were expropriated from the Indians. But resistance developed and an honest politician, Jaime Roldos, was elected president. He insisted on national control of oil to serve national interests, and expelled one of the US agencies from the country. Soon after he died (like President Torrijos of Panama) in a helicopter crash.
This is not an easy book to read. It is poorly written and poorly organized. The author is overly preoccupied with his personal story, and the book is padded with too much general material which is not well integrated with his new information. Nevertheless this is an important book. It is unfortunate that it has made so little impression to date.