Recent reading

I burned my way through John Perkins' book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man over the weekend, dropping all other reading for it.

The basic scheme he claims to have been a part of runs like this:

Premises:

• The US Government (and, to a lesser extent, European powers) wants to control other countries and enrich the US.


• The US Government (and, again, the Europeans) controls the major "international" financial structures (World Bank, IMF, etc.)


• Companies want to increase their profits.


• People in power in developing countries want to have The Good Life and stay in power.


• Some developing countries have valuable resources.

Method:

• US Government encourages a US company to propose an infrastructure development scheme to a developing country.


• The project is presented to target country's rulers as enhancing the country's total wealth as represented by GNP.


• The contract is awarded to US companies, and financed by loans from the WB, IMF, etc.


• The terms of the debt are set so that the country cannot successfully pay it off.


• The US Government "rescues" the country in exchange for UN votes, resource extraction rights, etc.


• The resource extraction rights are given to US companies or subsidiaries.


• The cooperative local rulers are given a sufficient cut of the proceeds to keep them onside.


• The consequent environmental and societal damage causes hardship for poor, often unemployed, rural natives and aborigenes.

He gives examples, of course, and discusses a bit of where to go from here. It's a big, complicated problem in which the pieces fit together snugly, so alleviating this is hard. In essence, though, he seems to me to propose that we:

• Reduce consumption, particularly of products and services (especially energy) whose prices are kept low by unethical extraction and exploitation practices;


• Become informed about current projects like this; and


• Protest against governments and comapnies which use these tactics.


It's a pretty interesting book; he tells the stories well, and gives them a personal angle. I recommend it highly. If you agree with him, it ties things together nicely; if not, I'm looking for a credible, thorough refutation.