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Confessions of an Economic Hitman
- Narrated by: Brian Emerson
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
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Confessions of an Economic Hitman
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Summary
"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."
John Perkins should know; he was an economic hit man. His job was to convince countries that are strategically important to the U.S., from Indonesia to Panama, to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development and to make sure that the lucrative projects were contracted to Halliburton, Bechtel, Brown and Root, and other United States engineering and construction companies. Saddled with huge debts, these countries came under the control of the United States government, World Bank, and other U.S.-dominated aid agencies that acted like loan sharks, dictating repayment terms and bullying foreign governments into submission.
This extraordinary real-life tale exposes international intrigue, corruption, and little-known government and corporate activities that have dire consequences for American democracy and the world.
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What listeners say about Confessions of an Economic Hitman
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Alex
- 03-07-07
Amateurish, and poorly narrated.
John Perkins appears to be a paranoid schizophrenic with delusions of grandeur. The conspiracy of which he writes is backed up by one conversation with a character that is presumably there only as a plot device, and no evidence beyond what he just 'knows'. What worries me more is that, like any good lie, much of this book is true, and so people may actually believe it. The CIA did bad things. Large (often, but not exclusively) American conglomerates also did bad things. Organisations may have had ulterior motives, and they also wanted to profit. But that's it, and it is very well documented. That may be unlovely, but it is not a conspiracy. Only at the beginning of the last quarter of the book is the cold war (against which much of this activity was taking place, rightly or wrongly) even explicitly mentioned, and summarily dismissed. And Mr. Perkins anti-globalisation worldview and his change to environmentalism (conveniently after his millions were made) assumes that the poor around the world would much rather be living happy stone age existences than be burdened with medicine, progress, jobs, and opportunity. What patronising nonsense. It isn't even written well. A last word on the narration: Brian Emerson is execrable. He has a cadence which makes you wonder if he isn't just a particularly sophisticated computer voice as the emphasis is frequently wrong and it is all reminiscent of a liturgical chant. His pronunciation of non-English words belies the author's stated linguistic abilities and interest in travel. All told, my first (and hopefully only) one star review. Avoid.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Hamish
- 19-02-15
Self-indulgent and unsurprising
This guy is so far up his own butt, his anus must be a non-Euclidean space. Corporations do crappy stuff around the world, the author took part in it, and will tell you so through ridiculously over-dramatic conversations (I'm sorry, no one really talks like the people in this book - "we need to do it for the grandchildren I hope to give you one day" from his 20-something daughter? Really?) and constant self-congratulation for reforming himself. Half the book is about WRITING the book. There's even a chapter called "September 11th and its aftermath for me, personally".
What a douche.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Kevin
- 24-11-12
Prepare to be gobsmacked!
You really owe it to yourself to listen to it. My jaw just dropped - I thought that things in the world of power were manipulated, but this is truly staggering.
The book is well paced and has the ring of truth about it. Narration is poor, but once you shake that off it shouldn't matter.
Drops off a bit at the end, but a great listen.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Wlodzimierz
- 11-07-07
This book gives hope for a better future
Where Hegemony and Survival by Noam Chomsky scratches the surface of the problem, Confessions of an Economic Hitman opens the lid and shows the truth in depth. It is the book that Hugo Chavez should have waved from the UN tribune. It is truly amazing to discover that the people that realise what is really happenning or want to know what is really happenning are so many. The high position of this book on Audible bestsellers is both deserved and encouraging. The arguments against Noam Chomsky are known and he is easily discredited in a PR campaigns as 'leftist'.
Now, what are they going to say to John Perkins?
'The missile is not invented...'
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jason
- 18-04-14
FANTASTIC!!!!!
Would you listen to Confessions of an Economic Hitman again? Why?
I'll probably listen to it again, although I got most of it on the first pass.
What did you like best about this story?
It is a tale well told. The writing style is polished and experienced - you can tell this is far from Perkin's first book. It is seldom that I have to draaaaaag myself away from a book, but this one was like that - I found myself stealing minutes to carry on listening. Well explained, never too technical to follow, but also never dull. It really is more like the type of thing we expect from the Graham Green he recounts meeting in the book than a non-fiction tale. It reads like a spy drama, but this mia-culpa is very much an act of confession, a catharsis of some sort.
What about Brian Emerson’s performance did you like?
I enjoyed his style, the moments of real urgency he brought into the telling. I enjoyed his tempo and tone. He did an excellent job.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
None leap to mind - it was all so very compelling.
Any additional comments?
If I was to offer one item of critique, if Perkins was to ever revised this work, I would be very interested to see a slightly wider take on the effects of EHM's on the third world. He takes it all onto his own shoulders, and it is clear makes absolutely NO attempt to share the blame around. Whilst this is humbling and admirable, it is maybe a one-dimensional take on a very complex social interaction. Thomas Malthus' Essay on the Principles of Population would draw a trajectory line on the distribution of finite resources within a society being spread more thinly as the population expands but resources do not. Whilst the EHM's were offering a panacea for that very situation, and promising massive wealth for all yet not delivering on that, would a hypothetical control society not have also become more impoverished without the interventions detailed in the book? It's not to let the EHM off the hook, but to maybe explore that nexus of different vectors happening on a society. Perkins may (with good reason) contend that this would be beyond the scope of the book, and muddy its beautiful clarity, but in some ways the failure to even touch on these considerations is, to my mind at least, an oversight.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Fred Muchardt
- 18-09-12
Awful!
Half truths and simplistic drivel of the worst kind. Makes me wish I could get a "refund" of the time I wasted listening to it. Avoid!
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Chris
- 07-09-21
An oddl book
This book is a brilliant example of what happens when a member of a civilisation that lies to itself and from there, everyone else, about its nobility, glory, destiny and above all intrinsic goodness realises that this is all propaganda. Its about someone who realises that his country is the new global Evil Empire and that he is part of that. Who likes all the propaganda but not the methodology of wealth and power. Who loves the idea of America as the protector of democracy but knows the US has been the biggest enemy of democracy.
Mostly though its the book of a fantasist who believes that reality is somehow a later day perversion of Americas destiny rather than the accept that his "job" was just more of what the blacks and indigenous peoples of america have known about the nation since its birth.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Mehran
- 11-05-20
Confessions of a Liar
I put up with all the tall tales of good natured indigenous people everywhere the author goes obviously crafted to appeal to eco-loons, I gritted my teeth and listened to how he felt ambivalent about his role (though not ambivalent enough not to picket the dough), but when it came to Iran and the mysterious anti-Shah Iranians he meets, including the man with no nose removed by Savak, I thought I'd had enough. All the clichés are here: 1953 'coup', proud Persians, evil and nouveau riche Shah (at one stage one of the characters in the 'novel' compares the Shah to Hitler. I mean really?) All straight out of the Left's handbook. I feel disgusted that I ever thought this pos was worth my time. After all, why should I or anyone else listen to a man who lied for living all his life?
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Adam
- 16-02-18
Just listen to it.
Just listen to it.
And make your mind up afterwards, not before.
We can’t afford to not know anymore.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- zaur
- 20-08-18
great read
amazing book. should be read by everyone. the reader is too dramatic. highly recommended x
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Trevor Burnham
- 31-05-05
Uninformed and largely fictitious
While this book has an interesting premise, the author lacks credibility, and uses an implausible story about world travels to support a one-sided diatribe against globalization. While I enjoy economic books from a variety of viewpoints, this book frustrates at every turn with the author's simplistic left-wing economic views. His general argument is that foreign aid loans are bad, because they must be repaid by poor countries, and so all foreign aid should be given away instead.
His main "confession" is that he, supposedly working as an economist, was forced to exaggerate projections for economic growth in countries that were receiving aid, thus pushing them to accept American loans that they would be unable to repay. However, there is no evidence that his claim is true; it seems far more likely that he made up the whole book, especially with the large number of "coincidences" that occur (such as Muslims supposedly telling him decades before 2001 that if America continued to abuse them, they would strike back). He also throws in a great deal of sex and flamboyant characters to pad out the few researched facts that he throws into the book.
There are many good, well-informed books expressing various viewpoints on globalization and the relationships between developed countries and less-developed countries; this is not one of them. For a real insider account, I suggest Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz, former Chief Economist for the World Bank. You might also be interested in The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto, a Venezuelan economist. Finally, for some of the history he refers to with CIA intervention in Iran, read All the Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer.
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97 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Robert P.
- 24-06-09
Excellent Story for people have traveled
I listened to the entire story before even looking at the reviews. While I felt the story did repeat a couple of parts and could have been condensed a tiny bit that was not what any of the complaints were even about. As someone who has spent 8 years traveling all over the world with the vast majority of that time being in asia for a large corporation, I can completely buy into most of this book. Given what I have seen and experienced first hand along with the time frame the story takes place it does not seem to be outlandish or unbelievable as was commented. In fact I find the opposite to be true. It explains things to me I have seen in a way that makes sense. I can not confirm that the story is 100% true but it is worth your time to read. It will help you open your mind to outside thought from the mainstream media. I would overall give this a 4* review but I felt it was worthy of the bump due to all the 1* which were based on not even listening to the entire thing.
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48 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- wilsonchua
- 20-05-05
Very explosive if true.
We have always wondered why the Philippines is deep in debt and hardly able to regain its premier economic position in the late '50s.
If only 50% what the author claims is true, then it would be explosive! As more people read this book, they will be exposed to this idea of how the US government can use 'developmental loans' as a way to 'conquer' countries--and How the US is actively corrupting the leadership of each of these countries. Isnt this illegal?
This can form the legal basis for developing countries around the world to repudiate their loans and thereby help lift the plight of the poor in all the developing countries.
Countries like the Philippines are budgeting the majority (more than 60%) of our national budget just to service these debts. Debts that are a direct result of morally reprehensible EHMs. Money that could go to feed and educate millions of people, are being funneled to service these debts.
How much more independent can the Philippiens, if it were not saddled with these dubious 'development' loans? Find out by reading this book. If what the author claims is true. He should be held up as a modern day hero for his courage in exposing this practice.
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46 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Michael
- 26-07-05
A Textbook History
Not an American textbook, however. Instead, this enlightening and disturbing book relates a history of the world since World War II that demonstrates how the United States has become a new kind of Empire. This Empire is based not on military might -- although as we see in Iraq, this is always an option -- but on the power of giant U.S. engineering, construction and oil corporations to induce nations around the world to borrow heavily from entities like the World Bank and USAID for economic development. Once these nations join the list of debtor nations, these staggering debts are used to get them to accede to a variety of U.S. political and corporate interests.
"Confessions" is John Perkins' personal account of how, as an "Economic Hitman" or EHM, he and others like him spearheaded this new kind of imperialism. The corporations EHM's worked for are almost quasi-governmental and have supplied our government with officials like Dick Cheney (Halliburton), George Schultz and Caspar Weinberger (Bechtel) and Geoge H.W. Bush who started in oil, became a Congressman, U.N. Ambassador, CIA Director, Vice President, President and is now associated with the highly-influential Carlyle Group.
But it is the close association of all these people, agencies and corporations with events of history that is so striking. It was the corporatocracy that wanted the legally elected democratic leaders in Guatemala, Iraq, Chile, Panama and Equador assassinated. Their sins? They wanted the profits from the oil, minerals and produce from their countries to help advance the standard of living of their own people. The corporatocracy felt otherwise, as maximum profits are its only raison d'etre.
But it is the story of the corporatocracy's relationship with Saudi Arabia and the House of Saud and that is most revealing. World events will not be seen in the same light after reading this book.
This isn't an American textbook, but should be required reading for all Americans.
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35 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Bradley M Bailey
- 27-02-09
Amazing story if you're not narrow-minded
After reading some of these reviews and listening to the book, it appears to me these 1 star reviewers are the ones who are "arrogant". I admit that Perkins does come off with a bit of an ego. I try to look past such flaws in people and focus on the actual content. I have seen many documentaries based on the corporate exploitation of the Third World. I by no means claim to be an expert on the subject, but I like to keep an open mind. To sit back and dismiss Perkins as "delusional" without knowing anything about the situation at hand, to me, is extremely arrogant. If you think that stories like this are false, then I challenge you to visit these countries and find out for yourself.
There is something quite wrong with this world and I think a lot of people can feel it. This story is just the tip of the iceberg. This book highlights the fact that so many wrongs are done in this world, and just as Perkins did, those that commit wrongdoing justify it to themselves as doing good. I just hope that enough open-minded people read this book and open their eyes to the injustices. If you do enjoy this book then I highly recommend the documentaries "Life and Debt" and "Zeitgeist: Addendum".
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27 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Kim
- 08-06-05
EHM help breed failing governments
The author has taken extended liberties to recount very old conversations during his various encounters with local nations, political super powers, and the corporate world or he kept a massive highly detailed log/diary of every encounter. His resume supports his opportunities to do what he claims and current events and history supports the majority of his allegations.
The sad part is from 1971 - 1981 he continued doing what he did knowing the impact. Through out the book he's looking for sympathetic hearts to his plight of being an EHM and his subsequent benefits from the many exposures and contacts he had as an EHM.
He continually demands empathy for his activities from the reader while he continues to pimp the whole experience for more money.
I?m sad to say; I contributed to his financial health with the purchase of this book.
I believe the book is largely non-fictional with the exception of detailed recounted conversations.
I won't recommend the book to anyone. I would not want the author to financially benefit more from his loathsome activities that may have contributed to the political blight our country is in today. It?s always easy to have morals and values while making money.
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20 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- AA
- 26-05-05
Confessions of an Economic Hitman (Unabridged
John Perkins
An Honest Man in World operated By Greed at Any Price !!!!!!!
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19 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Daniel
- 21-02-10
Why the US is hated worldwide
This is an eye opener for all those people that think the US is only trying to help the rest of the world. These "confessions" show how we manipulate countries in development so they can't grow.
Don't get me wrong, the US has done MORE THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY to rid the world of invasionist countries and we can be very proud of that, but we also have an Imperialistic side that is not disclosed inside the US.
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16 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Donn Edwards
- 15-06-07
Essential Listening
John C Dvorak recommended this book on the TWiT podcast, and I can see why. If you follow current events around the world, this book will fascinate you. If you work for a large company, this book will horrify you. But face the facts, and learn from another man's story.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Tolga
- 14-09-05
More detailed version of this book in progress
Of course there will be people who do not want to see the reality of US companies using the US government to advance their interests in developing countries. This book explains the facts in a simplified way so that the 'average American' can understand how things work. Those who don't believe the book, claiming there is not enough detail in it, will be surprised to hear that the author is writing a more detailed version with several other economic hit-man coming forward. Its just a matter of time before more people from developing countries come forward and everything is exposed to those who have the courage to face reality. The next step of course should be to make an effort to hold these greedy and unethical companies responsible.
This is an excellent book and highly recommended. Don't be distracted by the negative 1 star reviews.
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16 people found this helpful