Global Empire: The Web of Control

[reprehensor]

A killer excerpt from the follow-up to "Confessions of an Economic Hitman", called "A Game as Old as Empire" has been posted over at OpEd News.com;

Global Empire: The Web of Control

[HamdenRice]

1. I'm going to say something unpopular here about "economic hitman" ...

I have some doubts about Perkins whole "economic hitman" idea.

Firstly, Perkins has said some pretty far out things in other contexts that strain credibility.

For example, he also says that he can turn himself into a lizard (I think that's the animal) and fly around through time and space as a ball of light when he writes about Shamanistic shape shifting.

Second, I worked on the fringes of the world he is talking about, and I never heard anyone use the term "economic hitman." It's one thing if he means it as a clever term to describe what these people do (as the reference in the OP does); but I've heard interviews in which Perkins claims that this is a well known and often used term.

Third, in interviews, he seems not to understand the difference between the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a distinction often lost on DUers and progressives in general. The IMF is much more destructive than the World Bank. In fact, progressive hero and globalization critic Joseph Stiglitz was chief economist of the world bank and paints a picture of the IMF as bad and World Bank as not so bad. Whether you agree with that or not, they are very, very different institutions that play very different roles, and for Perkins to seem not to know that is strange.

[reprehensor]

2. So, do you think...

Perkins is there to muddy the waters?

[HamdenRice]

3. I can't figure him out

I read one review of him that said he kind of did a marketing study to hear what the anti-globalization movement members wanted to hear, and produced a product to fit that market. In other words, I think he's telling a certain segment of people what they want to hear, and it sells.

I can't understand Amy Goodman providing such a frequent platform for him on Democracy Now, without researching his other claims. I mean she's so skeptical of 9/11 research, but she regularly provides a platform for a guy who claims to be able to change into a lizard.

On edit: Sorry if my posts are off topic, because your OP is not about something written by Perkins, but by another author who simply uses Perkins' catch phrase, "economic hitman."

Didn't intend to hijack your thread.