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Corporate Social Responsibility
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2.15.2005 ET
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A New York Times Bestseller! Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins
THE INSIDE STORY OF HOW AMERICA BUILT AN EMPIRE ON THIRD-WORLD DEBT
(CSRwire) SAN FRANCISCO - "Economic hit men," John Perkins writes in his
controversial new book, "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. They play a game as old as Empire but one that has taken on
terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization."
John Perkins should know about economic hit men--he was covertly recruited
by the U.S. National Security Agency to be one. For years, he worked for an
international consulting firm where his job was to convince underdeveloped
countries to accept enormous loans, much larger than what was really
needed, for infrastructure development--and to make sure that the
development projects were then contracted to U. S. multinationals. Once
these countries were saddled with huge debts, the American government and
the international aid agencies allied with it were able, by dictating
repayment terms, to essentially control their economies. It was not unlike
the way a loan shark operates--and Perkins and his colleagues didn't shun
this kind of unsavory association. In fact, they even referred to
themselves as "economic hit men."
This is a story of international political intrigue at the highest levels.
For over a decade, Perkins traveled all over the world--Indonesia, Panama,
Ecuador, Columbia, Saudi Arabia, Iran--and worked with men like Panamanian
president Omar Torrijos, who became a personal friend. In 1974, he helped
to implement a secret scheme that funneled billions of Saudi petrodollars
back into the U. S. economy, and that further cemented the intimate
relationship between the Islamic fundamentalist House of Saud and a
succession of American administrations. Perkins' story illuminates just
how far economic hit men were willing to go, and unveils the real causes
of some of the most dramatic developments in recent history, such as the
fall of the Shah of Iran and the invasions of Panama and Iraq.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, which many people urged
Perkins not to write, is a blistering attack on⎯and exposé
of⎯the little known inner workings of both government and corporate
policies that have fostered globalization and led to the impoverishment of
untold millions of people across the planet. It is a story that will
increase the reader's understanding of why so many people in so many
countries hate America and what is has come to stand for.
An excerpt from Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is
available at http://www.bkconnection.com/ProdDetails.asp?ID=1576753018.
"Imagine the conceptual love child of James Bond and Milton
Friedman."
--Boston Herald
"This riveting look at a world of intrigue reads like a spy novel.
Perkins vividly recounts his work throughout the world, from Saudi Arabia
to Panama to Ecuador, and introduces such characters as Panamanian
president Omar Torrijos, who became a personal friend. Highly recommended
for both academic and public libraries."
--Library Journal
A "gripping tell-all book . . . . Perkins reveals how the U.S. machine
works behind closed doors and how America has exploited others for its own
needs" --Rocky Mountain News
"Must reading for those that know another world is possible! Perkins'
story, however , is less about individual guilt and more about the
systemic programming and tempting of males in patriarchal societies and
their global power elites. Perkins' revelations shock us and illuminate
how these same incentives in academia keep reproducing the
compartmentalized worldviews and sophisticated economic models
rationalizing inequity, greed, egotism ,competitive self-interest and
global expansionism via GDP-growth and debt."
--Hazel Henderson, author of Beyond Globalization and Building a
Win-Win World
"This is a stunning and groundbreaking book that is a must read for
anyone who cares about our world."
--Lynne Twist, Global Activist, author of the best selling The Soul of
Money
"John Perkins combines the brilliance and suspense of a Graham Greene
thriller with the authority of his insider vantage point to tell a true,
powerful, revealing, and bone chilling personal story that names names and
connects the dots between corporate globalization, American Empire, and the
House of Bush."
--David Korten, author, When Corporations Rule the World
John Perkins is founder and president of the Dream Change
Coalition, which works closely with Amazonian and other indigenous people
to help preserve their environments and cultures. He was previously
founder and CEO of Independent Power Systems, an alternative energy
provider. From 1971 to 1981 he worked for the international consulting
firm of Chas. T. Main, where he became Chief Economist and Director of
Economics and Regional Planning.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
By John Perkins
Published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Cloth
Number of Pages: 250
ISBN: 1-57675-301-8
$24.95
Publication Date: November 9, 2004
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