John Perkins (born January 28, 1945) is an American author. His best known book is Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (2004), in which Perkins describes playing a role in a process of economic colonization of Third World countries on behalf of what he portrays as a cabal of corporations, banks, international financial institutions, and the United States government. Perkins' claims were strongly contested by some involved parties as well as those familiar with the topics, and the book spent more than 70 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
Perkins has also written about mystical aspects of indigenous cultures, including shamanism.
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Life and career
Perkins graduated from the Tilton School in 1963. He subsequently attended Middlebury College for two years before dropping out. He later earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Boston University in 1968. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador from 1968 to 1970. He spent the 1970s working for the Boston strategic-consulting firm Chas. T. Main. He said he was screened for the job by the National Security Agency (NSA). Perkins states that he was seduced and trained as an "economic hitman" by a businesswoman named Claudine Martin, who used his NSA personality profile to manipulate and control him.
As chief economist at Chas. T. Main, Perkins said he advised the World Bank, United Nations, IMF, U.S. Treasury Department, Fortune 500 corporations, and countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Perkins states that he worked directly with heads of state and CEOs of major companies. Perkins's time at Chas T. Main provides the basis for his subsequent statements that, as an "economic hit man", he was charged with inducing developing countries to borrow large amounts of money, designated to pay for questionable infrastructure investments, but ultimately with a view to making the debt-laden countries more dependent, economically and politically, upon the West.
In the 1980s, Perkins left Main and founded and directed an independent energy company. Perkins implies in New Confessions of an Economic Hitman, published in 2016, that he was poisoned in 2005 on behalf of the NSA or CIA. Doctors diagnosed him with diverticulosis.
Assessments of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man provoked strong reviews, with many critics saying Perkins made false or unverified claims in the book.
Sebastian Mallaby, economics columnist of the Washington Post, described Perkins as "a conspiracy theorist, a vainglorious peddler of nonsense, and yet his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, is a runaway bestseller". Mallaby, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, said Perkins' conception of international finance is "largely a dream" and his "basic contentions are flat wrong". As an example, Mallaby stated how Indonesia reduced its infant mortality and illiteracy rates by two-thirds after economists persuaded its leaders to borrow money in 1970.
Articles in the New York Times and Boston magazine said there was a lack of documentary or testimonial evidence to corroborate the claim that the NSA was involved in Perkins' hiring by Chas T. Main. After an investigation, the New York Times concluded that "the arc of Mr. Perkins's career seems to be described accurately", although they did not find evidence to support "some of his fancier claims," including those involving the NSA.
A number of Perkins' former colleagues disagreed with his perspective on the company and contradicted specific claims he made; Frank Fullerton, one of his supervisors, stated Perkins left Chas T. Main because he "thought he was worth more than he was". Einar Greve, the former vice president of Chas. T. Main who first offered Perkins a job at the firm, agreed with Perkins that foreign debt had harmful effects and also represented a poor economic strategy for developing nations:Basically his story is true.… What John's book says is, there was a conspiracy to put all these countries on the hook, and that happened. Whether or not it was some sinister plot or not is up to interpretation, but many of these countries are still over the barrel and have never been able to repay the loans.
However, Greve denied many other aspects of Perkins' book, such as the NSA having any links to Main, or that Perkins was seduced by Claudine Martin. Instead, Greve believes Perkins has convinced himself the false parts of his story are accurate.