Authors: Steven Hiatt , John Perkins
Pub Date: 2007
ISBN: 9781576753958
Format: Softcover
Reviewed by: Today's Manager - the official bi-monthly publication of the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) Publication Issue Date: April - May 2008
ECONOMIC hit men are highly paid professionals who
cheat companies around the world out of trillions of
dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, US
Agency for International Development, and other foreign
"aid" organisations into the lockets of huge corporations
and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the
Earth's natural resources.
When John Perkins completed the manuscript Confessions
of an Economic Hit Man in 2003, the major publishing
houses were "too intimidated by, or perhaps too beholden to
the corporate elite to publish the book".
Eventually Berrett-Koehler took the book on and it
became a bestseller. This present anthology is written by
various contributors who uncover events that have taken
place across many countries.
The articles cover topics such as Dirty Money: Offshore
banking; BCCI: Bank on America, Banking on Jihad;
The World Bank and the Philippines; The Human Cost of
Cheap Phones; and Hijacking Iraq's Oil: EHMs at work.
In an interesting chapter, Lucy Komisar explores how
the USA used an offshore bank to run guns, finance Islamic
jihadists, and launder money. She relates how its Saudi
sheikh owners and American insiders defrauded depositors
of over US$10 billion. And how they got away with it.
In another chapter, Kathleen Kern analyses how the
civil war in Congo cost four million lives over the past 10
years. The strife was fuelled by western multinationals seeking
cheap supplies of coltan and other minerals.
Coltan is the colloquial African name for columbitetantalite,
a metallic ore used to produce the elements niobium
and tantalum. Coltan is necessary for the production
of high-technology devices like cell phones, laptop computers,
and PlayStations.
Kern concludes: "John Perkins' term, 'economic hit
man' seems almost too tame for the behaviour of the corporatocracy
and its minions in Congo. An unflinching look at
what they have done to the Congolese makes 'economic war
criminals' seem more apt."
