Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, 2004, Excerpts

World leaders are encouraged to become part of a vast network that promotes U.S. commercial interests. Those leaders become ensnared in a web of debt that ensures their loyalty. The network can draw on them whenever they desire – to satisfy their political, economic, or military needs. In turn, these leaders bolster their political positions by bringing industrial parks, power plants, and airports to their people. The owners of U.S. engineering/construction companies become fabulously wealthy.

It is not driven by a small band of men but by a concept that has become accepted as gospel; the idea that all economic growth benefits humankind and that the greater the growth, the more widespread the benefits. This belief also has a corollary: that those people who excel at stoking the fires of economic growth should be exalted and rewarded, while those born at the fringes are available for exploitation. We have convinced ourselves that all economic growth benefits humankind, and that the greater the growth, the more widespread the benefits. Our global culture requires exponentially increasing amounts of fuel and maintenance, so much so that in the end it will have consumed everything in sight and will be left with no choice but to devour itself.

Subprime Lenders

Federal Reserve

Ben Bernanke

Alan Greenspan

Paul Volcker

Presidents – Current and Past

Congress

US Treasury

Timothy Geithner

Henry Paulson

IMF and the World Bank

Robert Zoellick

Paul Wolfowitz

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Bechtel Corporation

Proxies

Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority

Saddam Hussein

Salam Fayyad

Manuel Noriega

Carlos Castillo Armas 

United Fruit Company, Bernays, and Guatemala

Photo Credit: Artist Shepard Fairey, Obey Giant