A Review of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins Essay

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins, is supposed to be a book about the author’s real life activities as a covert agent of the United States. Unlike other agents, Perkins alleges that he and others, operated to undermine the economic stability of other nations. While this book uses a number of references, few of these books seems to have any economic relevance at all. One book, The Blood Bankers: Tales from the Global Underground Economy, by James S. Henry, does make similar claims to those of Perkins; however, unlike Perkins, Henry investigates worldwide economic crimes that are both overt and subversive in nature. Perkins states that he was recruited to work as a covert agent of the government shortly after graduating from college. In his role as an economic hit man, Perkins was expected to meet with leaders of various countries, to convince them to make large investments and to accept loans for which they can ill afford to make the payments. These machinations resulted in these countries being in debt to larger powers, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, often in more ways than one. After a time, Perkins claims, he grew uncomfortable with his role and left his position as an economic hit man. Perkins claims that now that he is no longer a part of this corrupt operation, he feels compelled to tell his story. Perkins claims that he has good reason to write this book. By telling his story, he claims that not only can he make people aware of what is happening all over the world, but that he can also create solutions to the world’s economic problems. If this book has any one flaw, however, it is in Perkins’ credibility. Despite his claims that he was responsible for economic subterfuge, Perkins never backs his claims with undeniable facts, statistics, or figures. Neither does he connect his work with any other texts or documents that have a firm factual grounding. His bibliography is not scholarly in nature; rather, virtually all of his sources are secondary. The points that Perkins makes may have some validity. While this book was interesting to read, however, a critically thinking reader would have to question his role in the events that he claims occurred.