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63 pages 2 hours read

John Perkins

The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016

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Index of Terms

Corporatocracy

The US government and American corporations combine to dominate foreign countries, fast-talking them into taking out huge loans to pay for infrastructure development, then strong-arming them into accepting onerous conditions when the countries have trouble paying their debts, and finally removing or killing local leaders when they resist. This process works so well that it becomes institutionalized and nearly unstoppable, a system Perkins calls the “corporatocracy.”

Dream Change

A foundation to assist the Shuar people of the Amazon, Dream Change promotes the Shuar belief that “your life, the world, is as you dream it” (196). Through its auspices, Perkins conducts tours to the Shuar homeland, where visitors learn directly from the Shuar, “who were eager to share their knowledge about environmental stewardship and indigenous healing techniques” (196).

Economic Hit Man (EHM)

Perkins calls himself an economic hit man, one of many who bring rose-colored predictions of wealth and economic growth to developing countries that accept loans to pay American corporations for huge modernization projects. The predictions are exaggerated, and the loans harder to repay than expected. When the loans are restructured, the victimized countries take a huge hit, both politically and economically, and become subservient to US corporations.

Independent Power Systems (IPS)

Independent Power Systems, founded in 1982 by Perkins, is “a company whose mission included developing environmentally beneficial power plants and establishing models to inspire others to do likewise” (171). In a highly competitive market, IPS soared, and Perkins believes the company received backroom help from powerful people who prefer when Perkins is busy working and not writing exposés. Perkins sold IPS to Ashland Oil in 1990.

Jackals

Jackal is Perkins’s term for an agent, either of the US government or American corporate interests, who uses force to compel obedience from third-world leaders. Jackals are brought in when those leaders, having accepted loans to build infrastructure, resist excessive demands made on them later by banks and corporations. Jackals have no qualms about engineering political coups or assassinations.

JECOR

The Arab oil embargo of 1973 shocked the West and convinced the United States that Saudi Arabia must be brought into its economic orbit to prevent future oil disruptions. The “United States-Saudi Arabian Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation” (91), or JECOR, was the result; the quasi-private organization oversaw a giant program of development projects in Saudi Arabia provided by American corporations. JECOR was run from the US Treasury Department but structured as an independent entity and was therefore free from meddling by the US Congress.

MAIN

Chas. T. Main Inc., or MAIN, was an engineering company that specialized in designing large-scale electric power grids for developing nations. MAIN helped those countries obtain loans from the World Bank to pay for infrastructure improvements. Perkins’s job as chief economist at MAIN was to produce economic forecasts that promoted the projects as rock-solid investments. The projects were completed, but the promised economic growth usually proved less than advertised. By then it was too late, and the countries involved became indentured to US corporate and political interests.

Pachamama Alliance

Set up by Perkins to help promote the interests of indigenous peoples living in the Amazon basin, Pachamama raises funds “to protect the rain forests from encroaching industrialization” (197), in part by hosting tours of the Amazon to promote awareness. A spin-off organization in Ecuador, Fundación Pachamama, took an activist stance and was expelled from the country.

SAMA

The Saudi Arabian Money-Laundering Affair” (95) was MAIN’s in-house code phrase for the massive development project undertaken in Saudi Arabia by US corporations. Unlike most third-world nations undergoing the economic hit man process, Saudi Arabia needed no outside loans to afford modernization. Instead, Saudi oil money paid the bills, and, among MAIN’s agents, “the kingdom’s central bank was called the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, or SAMA” (95).

Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL)

SIL is an American missionary group that records the languages of indigenous peoples; it also encourages them to deed their lands to the oil companies. Ecuadorean President Roldós expelled SIL, but after his sudden death, his successor brought the organization back.

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