...comes in the prologue to Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, a fascinating 2004 confession by John Perkins, who built a career of furthering the international interests of what he now calls "the corporatocracy." His story sheds light on the self-serving motives behind much of the push for globalization and offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the corporatocracy asserts its power in developing countries around the world:
We economic hit men are crafty; we learned from history. Today we do not carry swords. We do not wear armor or clothes that set us apart. In countries like Ecuador, Nigeria, and Indonesia, we dress like local schoolteachers and shop owners...We visit project sites and stroll through impoverished villages...We cover the conference tables of government committees with our spreadsheets and financial projections, and we lecture at the Harvard Business School about the miracles of macroeconomics. We are on the record, in the open...
However - and this is a very large caveat - if we fail, an even more sinister breed steps in, ones we economic hit men refer to as the jackals...The jackals are always there, lurking in the shadows. When they emerge, heads of state are overthrown or die in violent "accidents." And if by chance the jackals fail, as they failed in Afghanistan and Iraq, then the old models resurface. When the jackals fail, young Americans are sent in to kill and to die.
