The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

The New York Times best seller updated and expanded featuring 15 explosive new chapters. The previous edition of this now-classic book revealed the existence and subversive manipulations of economic hit men. John Perkins wrote that economic hit men (EHM) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports rigged elections payoffs extortion sex and murder. In Perkins' case the tool was debt - convincing strategically important countries to borrow huge amounts of money for enormous development projects that served the very rich while driving the country deeper into poverty and debt. And once indebted these countries could be controlled. In this latest edition Perkins provides revealing new details about how he and others did their work. But more importantly in an explosive new section he describes how the EHM tools are being used around the world more widely than ever - even in the United States. The cancer has metastasized yet most people still aren't aware of it. Fear and debt drive the EHM system. We are hammered with messages that terrify us into believing that we must pay any price assume any debt to stop the enemies who we are told lurk at our doorsteps. The EHM system - employing false economics bribes surveillance deception debt coups assassinations and unbridled military power - has become the dominant system of economics government and society today. It has created what Perkins calls a death economy. But Perkins offers hope: He concludes with dozens of specific concrete suggestions for actions all of us can take to wrest control of our world away from the economic hit men and help give birth to a life economy.