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  • Confessions of an Economic Hitman

  • By: John Perkins
  • Narrated by: Brian Emerson
  • Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (313 ratings)
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Confessions of an Economic Hitman

By: John Perkins
Narrated by: Brian Emerson
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Summary

This is the inside story of how America turned from a respected republic into a feared empire.

"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.

©2004 John Perkins (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

What listeners say about Confessions of an Economic Hitman

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great book

loved the read. good flow..
well connected. I like the boldness to talk about politically sensitive issues.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Eye opening

It is a good book/story but there's something missing about it, which left me still yearning for more.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

What a world we live in

Everybody should know this. It should change your life and certainly open your eyes.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

everyone should know this book!

shocking and disturbing book about corruption and ruthless and devastating effects of American elite politics.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

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

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great

Great book highly recommended for anyone who’s into economics or politics .. very well articulated .. very recommended

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

It's okay...

The it's an interesting book. The thing that bugs me about it is how it seems that John Perkins is excusing himself with this book, like he didn't know what he was doing but now he does.

The most fun part of the book is when he describes his travels across countries like Panama, Iran, Indonesia and such, then you really listen.

If you want a good book on this subject, try The Shock Doctrine. I recommend it over Confessions of an Economic Hitman

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Eye Opening Journey

I really enjoyed this book. Nothing's really what it seems. The US exploitation of the poorest of the poor in the world while portraying themselves as the example we all have to look for freedom.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Filled In So Many Blanks

When l was introduced to this particular work of John Perkins, it piqued my interest immensely. As soon as l heard the first account, l knew that l was lead to a space of truth and truth-seeking.

John Perkins repartee and reality shun through. His soul searching touched me unlike those of the contrived ilk. This book filled in so many blanks for me. The countries l had connected to were victims of the EHMs and all that came with them. l applaud John for his courage. The narrator made this hard story palatable.

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1 person found this helpful