Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.
John Adams 1735-1826

John Perkins, author of "Confessions of An Economic Hit Man":
We economic hit men really have been the ones responsible for creating this first truly global empire, and we work many different ways...but perhaps the most common is that we will identify a country that has resources that our corporations covet, like oil, and then arrange a huge loan to that country from the World Bank or one of its sister organizations. But the money never actually goes to the country...instead it goes to our big corporations to build infrastructure projects in that country-power plants, industrial parks, ports-things that benefit a few rich people in that country, in addition to our corporations-but really don`t help the majority of the people at all...however those people, the whole country, is left holding a huge debt. Its such a big debt that they can`t repay it, and that`s part of the plan, that they can`t repay it. And so at some point we economic hit men go back to them and say listen, you owe us a lot of money, can`t pay your debts, so, sell your oil real cheap to our oil companies...allow us to build a military base in your country...or, send troops in support of ours to someplace in the world, like Iraq...or vote with us on the next U.N. vote...to have their electric utility company privatized, and their water and sewage system privatized, and sold to US corporations or other multinational corporations. So there was a whole mushrooming thing, and it`s so typical of the way that the IMF and the World Bank work: they put a country in debt, in such a big debt it can`t pay it, and then you offer to refinance that debt, and pay even more interest, and you demand this quid pro quo which you call a "conditionality" or "good governance" which means basically that they`ve got to sell off their resources, including many of their social services; their utility companies; their school systems sometimes; their penal systems; their insurance systems, to foreign corporations. So its a double, triple, quadruple whammy.

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