A redemption song

John Perkins poacher turned gate keeper of money from the world's poorest country exposes the inside story of an economic hit man. Michael McCaughan reviews this page-turner If you suspect that “structural adjustment” programs are sinister plots to impose dependency on developing nations, then this book is an important read. If you believe that the IMF and World Bank are benign philanthropists whose good works are thwarted by corrupt leaders of banana republics, then this book is indispensable. Unlike previous tomes which damn the international financial institutions from a height, this one deconstructs them from within.
John Perkins was a true believer, a poster boy for hostile takeover bids that have crushed entire nations and impoverished millions around the globe.
“Economic hit men are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars.” explains Perkins, “Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex and murder.”
The routine is simple; an economic “expert” hired by a private company sets up meetings with the government of the host nation. Loans are offered for infrastructure projects such as electricity plants, highways, airports and industrial parks. There are no loans offered for community health clinics or adult literacy courses. A condition of the loan is that engineering and construction companies from the US must build all the projects. “In essence, most of the money never leaves the United States... it is simply transferred from banking offices in Washington to engineering offices in New York, Houston or San Francisco.”
If the Economic Hit Man (EHM) is successful “the loans are so large that the debtor is forced to default on its payments after a few years”. While the average citizen might be concerned at a country defaulting on its loans, the lending country or agency is delighted; “like the mafia we demand our pound of flesh”, which means control over UN votes, the installation of military bases or access to valuable resources, particularly oil.
Perkins' page-turner takes the reader on a bizarre journey in which the corporate shark in five star luxury becomes whistleblowing champion of the underdog. A redemption song.
It all began with a draft dodge organised by a friend of Perkin's wife, one “Uncle Frank” who worked in the upper echelons of the National Security Agency (NSA). A thorough security vetting was accompanied by a range of psychological tests which apparently satisfied his handlers. Perkins took up a post as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Amazon, encouraged by Uncle Frank who told him that the imminent end of the Vietnam war would open up lucrative posts for agents in oil-rich nations. The path from overseas volunteer to Economic Hit Man (EHM) is narrated in gripping detail as the easygoing Perkins finds himself on the frontline of the drive to build a global empire. There is a whiff of Graham Greene in the air as Claudine, a mysterious and seductive handler, teaches him the ropes before disappearing from his life.
In keeping with the notion of plausible deniability, Perkins is always employed by a private company even though he is effectively working for the US military-industrial complex. Perkins was first hired by Chas T Main, Inc, (MAIN), an international consulting firm hired to determine whether the World Bank should lend Ecuador and its neighbours billions of dollars to build hydroelectric dams and other infrastructure projects. Perkins was expected to invent whatever spurious data might be required to push through ill-advised projects that indebted poor nations up to their eyeballs. The author also learned that when the consultants fail to close the deal then the “jackals” move in for the kill.
Perkins is left to count the corpses; an encounter with Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos results in a friendship as Torrijos sees right through the loan scam but collaborates with Perkins to hold off the jackals. The Panamanian president won the country's canal back from its US usurpers but his attempt to defy the global financial masters proved a push too far; his airplane fell out of the sky. In Ecuador Perkins got close to another progressive president Jaime Roldos, who also stood up to the jackals. The same fate befell him too as his plane turned into a fireball.
Perkins is no Che Guevara and he kept this book away from a publisher for 20 years due to “threats or bribes” made by his anxious former bosses. The bribes included fat retainers for doing nothing except remaining silent. The publication of these revelations will produce no tribunals and no convictions as the global capitalist juggernaut continues apace, protected by the US, EU and other interested partners.
In a significant chapter on Venezuela, Perkins compares the fate of President Chavez with the Iranian leader Mohammed Mossadegh, ousted in a US-backed coup in 1953. Perkins anticipated the overthrow of Chavez as soon as the hydrocarbons law was approved in November 2001, doubling royalties due from foreign oil companies. The coup against Chavez was reversed thanks to prompt military and civilian reaction. Soon after the Venezuelan crisis, Perkins met up with an old friend who told him that a “private contractor” had approached him to foment strikes in Caracas and bribe military officers to turn against Chavez. His colleague turned down that gig but assured him that the man who took the job was a respected leader in his field.
This book is rendered all the more powerful by the author's lingering attachment to his former career even as he hangs up his suit and moves into New Age shamanism.