Review: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Review: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
(Normally I do not blog about anything other than stocks over here. However, this book is a must read atleast for someone who invests in companies dealing with natural resources like oil, mining etc. A few months back I remember arguing that CDE assets in a country will not be nationalized, now I am not so sure)
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-HitMan-John-Perkins/dp/B002N71L2O/
Oh my god! I mean, Oh my god!!!!
Let me start from the beginning.
I heard this book being mentioned on my favorite channel 94.9 FM (www.kuow.org).
This book is about sub-prime lending. Sub-prime lending to poor countries. Sub-prime lending to countries that will never be able to repay their loans.
This is an insider’s account of how consultancy firms, large conglomerates and CIA came together to along with unsuspecting help from voluntary organizations and world organizations like IMF and World Bank.
Nicaragua, Columbia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Panama, Venezuela, Iran, Iraq and the deal of the life time Saudi Arabia.
I never believed in the claim that Iraq war was war for oil. Give me the proof! I used to say. Yes, I saw the documentary on the Netflix, did not find any convincing arguments. I was an enthusiastic supporter of Iraq war, thinking that we got rid of one despotic ruler.
I used to read up on Chavez and laugh at his conspiracy theories. I thought of him as a person suffering from schizophrenic disorder. A person who sees ghosts where there are none, I thought!
I believed in this till today i.e. 2nd November 2009. This book was a like a massive slap causing me to wake up from naivety. Opened my eyes, I must say. Never before I have read such an insider’s account that puts every piece in place; country by country.
It is hard to get indignant about a foreign country buying up natural resources and in the process helping some despotic ruler. It is hard to do that when now it is known that they are just following a well-trodden path.
It is with utter disbelief that I read the authors engrossing narrative about his interaction with the house of Saud to opposition in Iran to tribal leaders in South America. I found it surprising that the world accepted the markov process to project the growth of economies without understanding that we are rejecting markov to solve our own problems. Especially since we know that the past solutions ended with nothing but grief. By applying markov we would have know that there could be a different solution to energy independence.
Oh! What a pickle we find ourselves in.
Hind-sight is 20-20, one would say. I do not buy that. We elect our leaders for their visionary capacity, their ability to think ahead in the future. If this is not happening then why not make me the president, I am going to do as bad a job as any other person.
This is what the author says at the closing remarks. (It is worthwhile to note that this book was written in 2004)
The real story of modern empire – of the corporatocracy that exploits desperate people and is executing history’s most brutal, selfish and ultimately self-destructive resource-grab – had little to do with what was exposed in the newspapers that morning and has everything to do with us. And that, of course, explains why we have such difficulty listening to the real story. We prefer to believe the myth that thousands of years of human social evolution has finally perfected the ideal economic system, rather than face the fact we have merely brought into a false concept and accepted it as gospel. We have convinced ourselves that all economic growth benefits humankind, and that the greater the growth, the more widespread the benefits. Finally, we have persuaded one another the corollary to this concept is valid and morally just: that people who excel at stoking the fires of economic growth should be exalted and rewarded, while those born at the fringes are available for exploitation.
The wake-up call for the author came with 9/11 and I am glad that things have changed for better in the last few years. Yes, yes, I know the stock market has crashed and unemployment is soaring, but now I do feel that we are on the right path.
The handshake with Chavez has suddenly acquired a different meaning.
Ps:
One nagging thought which is troubling me is how come officials at world bank, IMF etc accepted these inflated growth forecasts. Unfortunately author fails to mention anything on this front.
Harshu,
Thank you for this blog. I find it interesting. I just started reading it because I enjoy the subject matter. Then I blinked and 1/2 hour was gone! Anyway, although I haven't read the book you talk about, I disagree with one of your premises. I don't believe that ALL economic growth is good. I think that's what the whole issue with the collapse of our financial system over the last couple years has been about. It doesn't help people to get them into mortgages they can't afford. It doesn't help people if we con them into doing things that are bad for them. It doesn't help us or them, although in the short term, it might look like we've all prospered. Long term, though, they get angry. Then, we end up getting lynched if we act that way too much. I think that what took place with subprime lending in this country was a perfect instance of our inability to legislate morality: just because it is legal doesn't make it right. It sounds like it might be a good book, though, just the same. Thank you for the writeup. It was interesting in any case.