Posted by: Samsara July 27, 2008
What are you reading now?
Login in to Rate this Post:     0       ?        

 

True to the Samsara's words, here's his review on perhaps the best conspiracy theory book he's read so far: Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins

 

Confessions of an Economic Hitman (for shorts I'll call it CoaEH) is supposedly the real life events of John Perkins, an economic-development cosultant with Chas T. Main under the guise of being an Economic Hitman for the NSA.  This book could've been similar to the warped theories of Chuck Barris, creator of The Gong Show in the movie Confessions of a Dangerous Mind where both authors are covert agents for the govt under the guise of being regular joes in a foreign land. 

CoaEH was an eye-opener to modern day world events that had its seeds sown during/after WWII. For all you developmental economics freaks out there wondering why the World bank/IMF development models never seem to work in the Less Developed Countries (LDCs), this book will sum up what academicians have been speculating and unsuccessfully trying to prove for decades...Enuff of blaming the corruption, incentives, political instability, etc...The models used by these economic advisors to get loans from the IMF for the LDCs itself were bogus.  A deception in the making larger than a gadzillion Enrons, Bear Stearns, sub-prime and whatever market crashes we've had so far.

This book is a must read for all young economists. And while at it go ahead and draw a parallel to the economic development environment in Nepal...an eerie resemblance!  It left me wondering "Is Economic Development a good thing? What are its costs to society? Why/How people consciously sell their souls to make loans to LDCs which they know beforehand can never be paid back (millions therefore succumb to poverty related causes)? Because of the US' foreign economic policies, what events may transpire here, say, within the next 10 years?" and the questions go on and on...

All in all, John Perkins is da man: A real-life pen and paper wielding James Bond...And they still say economics is for geeks???  

Read Full Discussion Thread for this article