Confessions of an Ecnomic Hit man Book Review

1. Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? Is the author's true life reflected in the book in any way(s)?
   
   
2. For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)

     For my final literature circle book I chose to read "Confessions of an Economic Hit man" written by John Perkins. This book tells the life of the author, John Perkins and how he ended up working for one of the nation's top private companies as an economic hit man.

    As John was growing up, he was a pretty normal child. He was born in Hanover, New Hampshire and attended a private school there. During his teenage years, John always would hangout with the "poor kids". His town was segregated by social class and while John was in the top half of the social ranking scale, he would often play with the middle and lower middle-class children. He never understood why there had to be such a distance that needed to be kept away from the rich and the poor. It was this type of understanding and innocence that would play a critical role in his life later on. A life as an economic hit man.

    "Once you're in, you can never back out." is a quote from the book that best describes the main point of John's life. As an economic hit man, his job was to travel from country to country discussing with foreign politicians about why or how they should allow United States privately owned companies to build on their land. He did this based on methods of being an economist. He would survey the country and estimate (very accurately) how much money the country would make, or save over a number of certain years. This happens in third world countries across the world and so they eventually end up indebted to the United States. As the United States has a firm grasp on the country, they go ahead and use it to their advantages. Whether it is another vote in the United Nations, or to grant more construction projects (mostly military) on their soil.

    This type of scheming and planning is really quite brilliant in a way. This kind of "global domination" can never be traced back to the government because it is always linked to a private company. However, these privately owned corporations have very close ties with the government. The particular company that John worked for was named Chas. T. Main Inc, or MAIN for short. This quote from the book briefly summarizes how this would work.
   
    "I was initially recruited while I was in business school back in the late sixties by the National Security Agency, the nation’s largest and least understood spy organization; but ultimately I worked for private corporations. The first real economic hit man was back in the early 1950s, Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., the grandson of Teddy, who overthrew the government of Iran, a democratically elected government, Mossadegh’s government who was Time‘s magazine person of the year; and he was so successful at doing this without any bloodshed—well, there was a little bloodshed, but no military intervention, just spending millions of dollars and replaced Mossadegh with the Shah of Iran. At that point, we understood that this idea of economic hit man was an extremely good one. We didn’t have to worry about the threat of war with Russia when we did it this way. The problem with that was that Roosevelt was a C.I.A. agent. He was a government employee. Had he been caught, we would have been in a lot of trouble. It would have been very embarrassing. So, at that point, the decision was made to use organizations like the C.I.A. and the N.S.A. to recruit potential economic hit men like me and then send us to work for private consulting companies, engineering firms, construction companies, so that if we were caught, there would be no connection with the government."

    As time went on, John rose in his company, becoming one of the top executives, but his conscience would always remind him that he was doing something wrong. This type of mental battle can be seen very clearly throughout the book.

    " It shook me to the core. I stomped out of the room and headed for Charlie's office. Halfway there, I stopped, uncertain about what I intended to accomplish. Instead, I turned and walked down the stairs, out the door, into the afternoon sun...A huge lump grew in my throat...I fought hard to hold back the tears; I needed to figure out why I felt so miserable. You're in it for the money. I heard Howard's words, over and over. He had struck a raw nerve."

    Eventually, he decided to leave. He quit the company, gave up everything that he had and decided to get away from all of this. John felt that it was necessary that the general public need to be told this truth of the hidden motives of our government, the World Bank, etc. So, he decides to write a book about it, however he is stopped multiple times by things that suddenly seem to pop up like job offers, threats, and bribes. Finally, after September 11th, John decides for the last time that the truth needs to be told. Truth be told, he wrote this book because he felt guilty of the things he's done. John basically feels like he's owed it to the public, as well as his family to reveal this truth. Therefore, I believe that this book should be read by everyone, young or old. There might be some setbacks to the younger readers though because there is wide variety of vocabulary that may not be comprehensible at such an age.

    This book was a real eye-opener for me and I'm sure it'll have the same effect on anyone else who chooses to pick up this book. John has also done other work related to this. He's made a move entitled Confessions of an Economic Hit Man in 2009, which shows interviews with John. He's also featured in the film Zeitgeist: Addendum, which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone who is interested in this type of government conspiracy theme. This book was written very well and I'm glad I was given the opportunity to read it.

Confessions of an Ecnomic Hit man [Part 3]

Well I have finally finished my last literature circle book. This last part post will be difficult since I will be very tempted to just summarize the entire novel. In the final chapters of the book, it talks about John basically listening to his inner conscience and deciding to write/finish up this book. I actually really enjoyed this part of the book because of all the in depth thought put into every single little aspect of what he's talked about previously in the beginning. Upon finishing this book, a lot of questions are meant to arise from you head. To most of the readers out there this material is a whole new eye opener, and to others, it's nothing more than just a confirmation of your theories. In any case, this book was created and written to inspire. To get the reader to think, take action, not believe everything that you are told. To be honest, it's had some inspiration for me. I doubt I'm going to write to my senators about my concerns about the government, or make phone calls to local politicians and give them my side of the story, but this has inspired me to get others to try and read this book. Spreading this knowledge will do some good in this society. Educate the ignorant, and maybe, just maybe somebody will act upon it. A quote that I believe really summerizes this would be:

"...the world as you dream it, and that we can trade in that old nightmare of polluting industries, clogged highways, and overcrowded cities for a new dream based on Earth-honoring and socially responsible principles of sustainability and equality. It is within our power to transform ourselves , to change the paradigm." pg. 292

Now, think about that quote for a second. If a great amount of people read this book, I can only imagine how society would be different. I don't want to give too much away because this book can put it into better word than I ever could, but nevertheless this book needs to be read. Your mind will be blown one way or another. Wait for my book review, I have trouble holding back what I want to say. Just know, if you want to be more in-tune with the world, reading this book is a must.

Confessions of an Ecnomic Hit man [Part 2]

The process of the author telling his story is getting more and more interesting for me. I am not sure why this is, but for some reason I feel more drawn into the storyline compared to the first part of the book. Maybe it's because I get to see him slowly developing into the economic hit man. As the novel progresses, John becomes more and more involved with his job.

"By 1977, I had built a small empire that included a staff of around twenty professionals headqueatered in our Boston office, and a stable of consultants from MAIN's other departments and offices scattered across the globe. I had become the youngest partner in the firm's hundred-year history. In addition to my title of Chief Economist, I was named manager of Economics and Regional Planning. I was lecturing at Harvard and other venues, and newspapers were soliciting articles from me about current events. I owned a sailing yacht...I was being paid an excellent salary and I had equity that promised to elevate me to the rarified heights of millionaire well before I turned forty." (Chapter 17 page 117).

As you can see from this quote, John is well on his way to becoming a top economist. He's living the life that seems only to be true in dreams, and he feels really satisfied with his decisions and what he is doing at this point. However, along the way he faces obstacles, or conscious reminders about how dark and evil his job really is. This seems to be the never ending battle in this novel, and it seems like every time he has made up his mind, something comes up to stir it all up again. I like how the author does this to keep the reader hooked on the book. I don't want to reveal too much, but this book is very enjoyable so far!

Confessions of an Ecnomic Hit man [Part 1]

The New York Times Bestseller, Confessions of an Economic Hit man by John Perkins is what I'll be reading for my Literature Circle. I remember first hearing about the basics of this book from Mr. Sutherland when he first introduced the class to the whole concept of literature circles. While he was giving his brief summary on the book, it started to peak my interest. Words like scheme, globalization, hit man, etc. really caught my attention. My first thought after hearing about the book was the movie Zeitgeist which talks about related topics. I didn't enjoy the last book I read, so I figured I would finish the year strong with a book that I will hopefully find satisfying.
After reading the first few pages of the book I was quite surprised at how this book was written. It's a much harder book to read and follow than I had originally thought, but it's still manageable. The first part of the book starts off as an introduction to the author's life, how he got into the business and how he felt about it. The part that I read in which I really enjoyed was when he was situated in Indonesia and instead of living the rich and fancy life of his co-workers, he decides to spend a night out with some locals which changes his views on things. Another part of the book that was touching is when he starts to have a change of heart.
" It shook me to the core. I stomped out of the room and headed for Charlie's office. Halfway there, I stopped, uncertain about what I intended to accomplish. Instead, I turned and walked down the stairs, out the door, into the afternoon sun...A huge lump grew in my throat...I fought hard to hold back the tears; I needed to figure out why I felt so miserable. You're in it for the money. I heard Howard's words, over and over. He had struck a raw nerve." pg. 37
This passage is really emotional and shows the author's conflict in fighting to believe in his morals and gut feelings versus his job and nationalism. As this book progresses I am interested to see what happens. One thing that caught me by surprise is that it's not as action packed as I thought. For some reason I expected him to be an actual hit man at times too, but I guess not. Well, so far so good.