Do you agree with the confessions of one economic hit man?

Question

IIn his book titled Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, Perkins describes how as a highly paid professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars:

"Basically what we were trained to do and what our job is to do is to build up the American empire. To bring -- to create situations where as many resources as possible flow into this country, to our corporations, and our government, and in fact we’ve been very successful. We’ve built the largest empire in the history of the world. It's been done over the last 50 years since World War II with very little military might, actually. It's only in rare instances like Iraq where the military comes in as a last resort. This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through fraud, through seducing people into our way of life".

Answer 1

On the one hand, you're paid to work for your own side. On the other hand, you can't afford to be that biased.

I don't know, we're supposed to be somewhere between Starfleet Command and the First Reich. At the same time, the powerful tend to gain more power. It's sort of a question of, what would you rather the economic hit man do? I mean, there's honest trade deals where both sides benefit and benefit well; there's moderately honest trade deals where both sides benefit, but lopsidedly, and then there's exploitation.

Answer 2

The more I learn about the effects of globalization and corporate America, the more I suspect that there is much truth in what thinkers and writers such as Perkins say.

I'm minded of a film on Jamaica which examines the effects of the Caribean trade agreements and subsequent international business deals have done to Jamaican farming and industry. I can't recall the title.

You have to use your own common sense as you read on current affairs and global economy. What do you know of empires and how they are built? What do you know about today's economy? If American business is based on capitalism, and if as you should know, almost all our clothing is now made in other countries, how is the market structured so that you can still afford to buy clothes? Why do so many wish to enter the United States? Why are so many angry against the United States? Is the "war on terrorism" really fueled by Islamic extremism? Are all terrorists motivated by religion, or are there other issues involved, such as cultural differences, resentment against imperial strength and influence, etc.? What are we being told "by the media"? Who are the media? Who are the powers that be? Who are we?

Answer 3

Yes, it's true. The predominate economic example is the Saudi Arabian deal from the 1970's following the gold default of the U.S. dollar. We needed something to keep the dollar from plummeting. Our war economy, taken over by the military-industrial complex which President Eisenhower warned us of, was no longer able to create wealth and was in default.

The Saudi Arabian deal is: we provide military security for the Saudi regime in exchange for cheap oil sold ONLY in U.S. dollars (if oil is sold in Euros or some other currency, our trade deficit would make oil in the US very expensive). The dollars the Saudis receive from our oil purchases are to be put into U.S. bonds to keep the dollar strong. The U.S. then provides engineering services (via Haliburton and others) to help the Saudis build-out their critical infrastructure (water, electricity, etc) equal to the value of their bond purchases.

As John Perkins noted in the book, the leaders around the world who don't go along with U.S. imperial economic designs are first persuaded to do so, then bribed to do so. If those two strategies fail, then they are removed from power by whatever means are necessary. Saddam Hussein may be the latest example. Hussein wanted to start selling Iraqi oil in Euros. This would have crushed the U.S. financial system because oil is the only thing keeping the dollar from collapsing as a result of our vast national debts. So, Saddam had to go. Paul Bremer's first act as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority was to decree Iraq's oil sales be denominated only in U.S. dollars.

Answer 4

I read the book and had the opportunity to see and hear Perkins speak. I do believe many of his claims about what he did and the government but I have some reservations about all of the details of the book. For instance the whole Claudine situation and how she has just disappeared and such. Some of it is a little unbelievable but I think a lot of what he say is true. Good book to read though.

Answer 5

It is the insider speaking; where is the question of anybody agreeing or not agreeing.

The US of A supplies such 'essential' items as stealth bombers and other advanced weaponry at astronomical costs to underdeveloped countries. Through clever diplomatic manipulations they are encouraged to wage wars among themselves. Countries like India, Korea, China, Mexico etc. squeeze their manpower to supply such 'non-essential' items like food, clothing, timber etc. at ridiculously low prices. This is just the tip of an iceberg. There is more to it.

Now, tell me, is the Economic Hitman right or wrong?

Answer 6

That's ridiculous.

Certainly we like to make America as strong as possible. But it doesn't take cheating, fraud and seduction. Our way of life is based on individual freedom, basic human rights and the pursuit of happiness. That's usually not a hard sell for the masses. We shouldn't be ashamed of wanting to encourage freedom and human rights while discouraging governments that don't allow such things. However, despots and warlords don't like it so much.

Have Americans been involved in shady deals? I'm sure of it. Does that mean that wanting people around the globe to benefit from freedom, human rights and prosperity is a bad thing? No.

Answer 7

No! This is not true!
If this would have been true there would have been at least an example! But there are NONE!
US is a rich country because they could sustain moderate economic growth for a long period of time, whitout having towering inflation rates (a good monetary policy from 1940s until now)
They were also very good at attrackting capital (better than anyone else) because of the embeded freedom values that they cherish.

Answer 8

absolutely - this is the outcome of a profitdriven society

and when i say profits, i mean theft

profits are not called theft, but they are - -except when it is a mom and pop operation in which case profits are what mom and pop take their wages out of

but in a bigger company, the bosses get salaries - profits are on top of payment for their work

therefore they are BY DEFINITION not earned - profits belong to overcharged customers and underpaid workers

it is of course the easiest thing in the world for a company to charge $11 for an item for which the total costs [including the salaries of bosses, owners, directors] are $10

a theft of $1

is this a small matter? - just 10% theft? - no - bill gates's personal average annual profit rate of 36% turned 5 million into 50 billion in just 30 years or so - a profit [theft] rate of 100,000%

it is only the economic ignorance of the people that enables this theft to happen

is it just a matter of a theft of US$50 billion? - no - 1% of people get 90% of world income - US$70 trillion dollars - leaving US$5 trillion for the remaining 99% - an annual theft of US$70 trillion - the greatest robbery never noticed!

those 10% profits just keep building - and accelerating, as money makes money, as the bigger profit deals [over 20%] are given to the bigger investors

is is only that, then? - the annual theft of over 90% of people's earnings?

no - theft causes violence - money answers to all necessities like food and water, and millions of wants, from clean [ie, diseasefree] water to medicine to education to a fair share of political power

is that all it is?

theft and violence and poverty and powerlessness and death by starvation and war for 2% of humanity a year?

no - violence is escalative - war and weaponry escalating for 1000s of years to the present point of power to extinguish all planet life 60 times over - and the everrising tension to do it - we cant race towards ww3 without arriving

if no one was overpaid, everyone IN THE WORLD, including all homemakers and tertiary students, would be on US$75,000 a year per family working average hard - superplenty for all and world peace

how do you create misery when there is superplenty for all? - by super hyper extreme theft - then the underpaid are partslaves or full slaves, with most of their earnings stolen - the overpaid [stealers] are under attack and unsafe in proportion to their overpay [ceausescu] - everyone is embroiled in escalating violence and extinction - most are terribly poor and terribly powerless and mistreated - and the rest are 'trembling on the edge of the volcano' of resentment of the theft

brilliant

it could all be stopped quite simply by limiting fortunes to the just limit - stopping people being legally free to take out of the pool of social wealth up to a million times more than the most anyone can put in to the pool by their work [US$2 million] - and spreading the overfortunes equally among everyone [everyone to open bank accounts, one account per person to receive the overfortunes]

justice [nontheft] is essential to peace and happiness - we have super hyper extreme injustice [pay from $1 to $1 billion for a fortnights work, ie, from 1000th to a million times the average hourly pay of US$15 an hour if you pay all homemakers and tertiary students as well]

THEREFORE WE CAN BE SUPER HYPER EXTREMELY HAPPIER

at the cost of making a few laws preventing overpay [theft, injustice], as the founding fathers intended - ie, preventing people taking out more than they put in to the social pool of wealth by work

can we continue our brilliant success at making ourselves miserable, and continue to win the all-galaxy stupidity olympics with an unbroken record for 5000 years of taking the gold medal, by going all the way to extinction soon without learning the lesson of history or hearing the message of every wise person since time began: no justice, no happiness?

or will our will crumble, and will we succumb to the temptations of 100fold happiness and non-selfextinction?

proof that we already know justice would cause 100-fold happiness:

by what factor would our happiness be reduced if a govt took 90% of income permanently off 90% of the people and gave it to 1%? - would we be 100th as happy? - dont forget, not just the loss of most income, but also the war between the 90% and the 1% - escalating to extinction

that would make the 1% only 910 times better paid than the 90% - an injustice/violence/escalation rate of only 91,000%

in the world today, we have pay from a million times to 1000th of the average - an injustice/violence/escalation rate of one billion or 100,000,000,000% [a hundred billion percent]

now is not the time to falter!

will you let some secondratestupid, notverystupid planet snatch away your golden laurels at the last bend in the race, when we can hold the record for millions of years, perhaps for all eternity!

Answer 9

Hell yes its the truth...makes you proud to be 'Merkun don't it?