EHMs

I wanted to post something up here about Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins. It's a book I recently read by stealing time in between work over the weekend, and I found it an interesting introspective from someone who worked in a career aligned with my own. The author basically describes the new form of global empire, and how, as he believes, people working in private industry and development finance contribute to the subjugation and virtual enslavement of impoverished people in the third world. Specifically, Economic Hitmen (EHMs) are supposed to sell exorbitant loans to third world countries, which they know the countries will never be able to afford to pay, and then persaude them to use the funds in construction projects that are undertaken by American and Western firms, thus tying to country to the West's political agenda while creating business for its own companies and entrepreneurs. Ironically, in the culture of globalization, most of the people implementing this foreign policy are unaware that they are doing so, as they have been indoctrinated into the mindset of the North American corporatocracy.

At first glance, the summary of this story makes it out to be another piece of leftist extremism flying in the face of modern economics. But Perkins, who spent much of his life working for the system, and who describes himself as one of the few "EHMs" consciously aware of the "master plan", paints a very real and vivid account of his own experiences working in the third world, which I found very real and, more frighteningly, very compatible with both my life in Indonesia and also my working experience. Of course, the World Bank is named as one of the principal organisations contributing to this new form of empire (what self respecting left-of-center account of global economics could do without some Bank-bashing?)

I am leaving my own personal judgment on the truth and profundity of what Perkins wrote in limbo, as I feel I need time to digest it, and to examine counter arguments. Definitely worth a read though.