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cthrumatrix Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 09:09 AM
Original message
Wow - St Pete Times reviews "Confessions of an Economic Hitmen"
Edited on Mon Feb-07-05 09:20 AM by cthrumatrix
A hit man comes clean on economy

By ROBERT TRIGAUX, Times Business Columnist
Published February 7, 2005

Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. . . . I should know; I was an EHM.

- John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

snip

A call to confess.

Hence his recently published book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. It tells how the United States in the past 40-plus years has relied on economic manipulation and political coercion to extend its power and control over other nations. Perkins' book is on a dozen bestseller lists and ranked No. 10 on Sunday's list of nonfiction bestsellers in the New York Times. It is already in its seventh printing.

Perkins apparently has hit a nerve with readers anxious to understand better why so many parts of the developing world have such deep-seeded suspicions of the United States. The book sheds new light on decades of economic maneuvers in the Middle East that contributed to today's U.S. involvement in Iraq. The book even offers some context for the current tensions between the energy-hungry United States and one of its major oil providers, Venezuela, as detailed by St. Petersburg Times Latin America correspondent David Adams on this business page.

"What economic hit men do is not illegal, but it should be illegal," Perkins said in a recent interview. If a banker persuaded someone to take out a loan that was too big to repay, but then demanded some favor to satisfy the loan, it would be criminal, he argues.

snip

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/02/07/Columns/A_hit_man_comes_clean.shtml

This is the reality of the Global Elite and a guy that "Tweety" and Hardbal would NEVER have on TV.

It's a must read everyone!
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bryant69 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 09:13 AM
Response to Original message
1. The trouble
I think is that for the most part Americans don't see a connection between the actions of American Corporations and themselves. If General Electric or Lockheed Martin or United Fruit Company or whatever does something immoral, well that's bad. But we see that as the actions of some American individuals, not of America as a whole.

Of course we conveniently forget how much our foreign policy apparatus works to protect such companies and ensure they hav the power and ability to pick on the third world.

Bryant
check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com
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IrateCitizen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 09:49 AM
Response to Reply #1
8. Don't see... or don't want to see?
I don't disagree with your assessment, but I think you may be asking the wrong question here. Do most Americans have any desire to confront such unpleasant realities? After all, much of the basis of the affluence and luxury we enjoy in comparison to the "developing" world is a direct result of this kind of economic thuggery. To confront it for what it is may result in having to abandon certain luxuries and privileges to which we have become accustomed.

Sadly, I think that is the reason that most Americans, when confronted with truths such as these told my Mr. Perkins, not only reject them -- but reject them VIOLENTLY. To do otherwise would force them to look at their own complicity and to feel extreme discomfort with the advantages they enjoy as a result of the country they are born into. It's just much easier, psychologically, for most people to remain ignorant and happy.
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The Backlash Cometh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 10:28 AM
Response to Reply #1
11. You'd be surprised how many right-wing white bastards work for
Lockheed. And some of them even believe that Lockheed is the answer, and not the problem and that war is good for America's economy.
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BlueEyedSon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 09:14 AM
Response to Original message
2. Would be nice if the reviewer was literate in English
Edited on Mon Feb-07-05 09:23 AM by BlueEyedSon
the expression is "deep-seated." Guess he's "hukt awn fonix."

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/deep.html
http://www.bartleby.com/61/67/D0086700.html
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ashmanonar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 09:34 AM
Response to Reply #2
5. deep-seeded can be a word too
Edited on Mon Feb-07-05 09:34 AM by ashmanonar
i wouldn't call it the best choice of words, but maybe the reviewer is expressing that the corruption and coercion are like seeds, being planted deep.

ok, so i pulld that out of my ass. :D

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BlueEyedSon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 09:46 AM
Response to Reply #5
7. Follow the links for advice on the correct usage.
I suppose the flower bed in a garden or nursery could be deep-seeded.
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ashmanonar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 01:30 PM
Response to Reply #7
12. lol
that's why i said i pulled that out of my ass.
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BlueEyedSon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 09:16 AM
Response to Original message
3. Also, a link would be nice, too... nt 8^)
Edited on Mon Feb-07-05 09:16 AM by BlueEyedSon
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cthrumatrix Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 09:20 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. here ya go..sorry
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mhr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 09:43 AM
Response to Original message
6. Democracy Now Interview With John Perkins
Edited on Mon Feb-07-05 10:01 AM by mhr
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JNelson6563 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 10:05 AM
Response to Original message
9. This looks like a good read
Thanks for posting this. :toast:
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cthrumatrix Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 10:07 AM
Response to Reply #9
10. It's a great book...the "puzzle" comes into view after you read how
the US and it's mafia tactics are exposed.

Two parties...LOL.
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Al-CIAda Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 02:22 PM
Response to Original message
13. Audio Intterviews -
Audio-
Guest: John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"
Fri., December 10, 2004
Deadline Live w/Jack Blood

mp3's-
pt1- Interview starts approx. half way through
http://mp3.rbnlive.com/Blood/0412/20041210_Fri_JackBlood1.mp3
pt2-CIA sequence of Empire (economics, assasinations, torture, vote rigging, etc.) Naming names...vote rigging!
http://mp3.rbnlive.com/Blood/0412/20041210_Fri_JackBlood2.mp3

Realplayer RAM-
http://mp3.rbnlive.com/Blood/0412/20041210_Fri_JackBlood.ram

======
Democracy Now!
Tuesday, November 9th, 2004
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
Listen to Segment || Download Show mp3      
Watch 128k stream       Watch 256k stream  
------------------------------------------------------------------------
We speak with John Perkins, a former respected member of the international banking community. In his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man he describes how as a highly paid professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then take over their economies.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Perkins describes himself as a former economic hit man - a highly paid professional who cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars.

20 years ago Perkins began writing a book with the working title, "Conscience of an Economic Hit Men."

Perkins writes, "The book was to be dedicated to the presidents of two countries, men who had been his clients whom I respected and thought of as kindred spirits - Jaime Roldós, president of Ecuador, and Omar Torrijos, president of Panama. Both had just died in fiery crashes. Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads whose goal is global empire. We Economic Hit Men failed to bring Roldós and Torrijos around, and the other type of hit men, the CIA-sanctioned jackals who were always right behind us, stepped in.

John Perkins goes on to write: "I was persuaded to stop writing that book. I started it four more times during the next twenty years. On each occasion, my decision to begin again was influenced by current world events: the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1980, the first Gulf War, Somalia, and the rise of Osama bin Laden. However, threats or bribes always convinced me to stop."


Excerpt:
AMY GOODMAN: John Perkins joins us now in our firehouse studio. Welcome to Democracy Now!

JOHN PERKINS: Thank you, Amy. It’s great to be here.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. Okay, explain this term, “economic hit man,” e.h.m., as you call it.

JOHN PERKINS: 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, through the economic hit men. I was very much a part of that.

Con't-
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/09/1526251
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