Written by: John Perkins
Read by: Brian Emerson
Background: "Economic hit men," John Perkins writes, "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."
I first heard about this book from John C. Dvorak on one of the many podcasts he frequents. He highly recommended this book as an explanation for why things are they way they are in this world. Before I read the book I also saw an old Documentary produced by PBS journalist Bill Moyers in the 80's called "the shadow government". In the documentary, Moyers exposes alot of the Government corruption and who's behind it in Washington. What Moyers didn't realize is that alot of the things he talked about in his hit piece, John Perkins was personally responsible for.
Perkins never actually worked directly for any Government agency , but rather worked for a private consulting group called Maine. Maine which is now defunct, produced expert analysis and recommendations to developing nations. He would essentially fabricate economic growth estimates in order to justify massive loans from the IMF and World Bank. Loans that would make the leaders of these nations wealthy while saddling their people with debt that could never be repaid. Once the nation defaulted on these loans the United States would then call in favors like access to natural resources like Oil Fields, or allowing the construction of Military bases. Also, any national development projects would have to go to U.S. based construction and engineering firms like Bechtol and Haliburton , further pushing the country into the hole by not employing their own labor force.
John Perkins spent alot of his career working in Central and South America. One of the more interesting stories he talks about is in Ecuador in the 1950's. During this time Shell Oil was pushing hard to explore for Oil in the Northern Amazon Rainforest. Which is why a group of Missionaries from America went there to attempt to contact native tribes living in the Forest. According to Jaime Roldós Aguilera , Ecuador's President from 1979 - 1981. SIL the Missionary organization that sent in Missionaries like Rachel Saint and her Brother Nate Saint and his friends Jim and Elisabeth Elliot and others. Apparently SIL was pressuring the natives off their land and into Mission Organized camps , in order to make the land more available to Shell for exploration for Oil & Gas. President Aguilera said SIL was dropping in food to the natives laced with Laxatives. Then the missionaries would come to the rescue with the cure. Among other very disconcerting accusations. This to me explains a much better reason for why the Waodani Tribe murdered Nate, Jim, Peter, Ed and Roger. It never made much sense to me that they were killed by this tribe just because they were savages that didn't understand right from wrong. President Aguilera says they were upset that the Oil companies were forcing them off their land and they used the Missionaries as an example of what would happen if this continued to happen.
In my view, I think the death's of these 5 great men was a tragic loss one that could have been avoided. And now I believe that they were being used , maybe without even knowing it, by Shell Oil. I saw the movie that came out about their story a few years ago. It was sad and tragic, but I think the better story is that of Rachel Saint. I think she was the real hero in this case.
John Perkins tells a very intriguing story, one that I think is honest. Maybe he didn't have as large of an influence on the world stage as he thinks he did, but maybe he really did. The pieces certainly do seem to fit when you look at it from his angle.
The Review:
As for the Audio part of this review, the book works well as an Audio book. But the reader Brian Emerson's pace and tone, and inflection in certain words is just off at times. It is very listenable but I'd rather someone like Scott Brick read it. I can't say that I'd be looking forward to Brian Emerson reading me another book anytime soon.
Rating 3.5 out of 5
-B
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