John Perkins - Confessions of an Economic Hitman

[rainy]

I bought this book for a friend, but he said I must give it a squeeze. So I did, and read the whole thing in one afternoon. This is not fiction, but a factual book, and it has a political background. This just as a warning.

Basically this is the story of a man who in the early 70s was hired to be a so-called economic hitman. Their purpose was, as he put it, to create and expand the global empire of the USA. Mainly that was done by convincing world leaders, especially of third-world and emerging countries, to accept vast development loans, only the loans came with the condition that the contracts for such projects had to be awarded to US firms, which essentially means the money never left the country. Once the countries were burdened with the debt, they would almost invariably reach the point where they could not repay, and then the US would "request their pound of flesh" - access to natural resources, military and/or political cooperation.

This book is not really anything new or surprising, it is just another confirmation of the intentions of the USA, along with some rather scary details, especially about the events in Latin America. The inclined reader might start asking the question where the real threat to the world is sitting. Give it a try.

[Bass]

I've heard it's really good from other guys too - will have a look at some stage ..