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Book: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man :: BrowseNode:Women & Business|Books|2556 :: Book
Date: Wednesday, 03 December, 2008 :: 21:32
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Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
List Price: USD $15.00
from USD $7.96
Product Group: book
Manufacturer: Plume
Studio: Plume
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Editorial Review:
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Reviews:
Average Customer Review: 
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Summary: the truth...
Date: 2008-11-24 - 
Comment: This is the most awe-inspiring, and provocative book that I've ever read. I've found myself between a couple pages thinking "how could they do that? Why?" This has further heightened my desire to research into the corporation, money, and the manipulation that our "system" relies on every day. Well worth the while. I've started reading his sequel, and it has exceeded my expectations with more info and more interviews and quotes from the hundreds of people that have come forth. Man, just buy it, borrow it, steal it... what ever you have to do to soak in the information that John has to offer. (Try not to steal it...)
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Summary: Eye-opening
Date: 2008-11-23 -
Comment: For the people who want to know what is hidden behind the fact that America has become so strong over the years, this is the book to read. No conspiracy theories, no spy games, just pure imperialism in the worst manner. I always thought that economic development the Western way was what everyone would want in the world, but I never thought that not everyone is like us, not everyone cares about our materialistic world. And as much as they don't care about us we should not care about them and let them develop the way they want to develop.WATCH ZEITGEIST AND JOIN THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Summary: The book I had to read, but then wanted to finish
Date: 2008-11-19 -
Comment: I think this is a great book. I had to read different chapters for a class, but I liked it so much I decided to read the whole book. The writing is simple to read and understand, and the message and information within the chapters is powerful and very interesting. Not too many people know about the seedy underside of multinational corporations. This book brings that to light in a way that is interesting.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Summary: Why was "Hitman" a hit? Here's how Perkins would read the negative reviews
Date: 2008-11-04 - 
Comment: PRO: At the end of the book, he says you, the reader, are the reason the world is the way it is. After listening to his nonstop bashing of corporations and governments, I expected him to conclude with a final "coup de grace" on those two entities, but I was wrong! He puts the blame where it should be: all of us. We are those people in the corporations and the governments reflect what we want. If we want to blame someone, let's start with ourselves. I commend Perkins for saying that. "Any fool can criticise, and most fools do," said Andrew Carnegie. Those few paragraphs almost took the book to two stars. Unfortunately, the rest of it was terrible.
CONS: Many other reviewers will point out the myriad of flaws and shortcomings of this book. I'll illustrate how Perkins would read all these one star reviews. He would say:
- They're written by jackals, government officials, and corporate hitmen trying to discredit me.
- They're people who are so naive that they don't understand how the real world works. They say this is a fantasy. It's no fantasy, baby, this was real life!
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF PERKINS: Perkins is a man filled with regret. He dreamed of living an exciting life, but ended up living just a mediocre one. For example:
- He wanted to go to Ivy League Schools, but went to a ho-hum schools.
- He wanted to be an executive, but he never got beyond middle management.
- He wanted to be a spy for the NSA, but all he got was an interview.
- He wanted to live a glamourous life, but he got all the pedestrian glamour of a typical international corporate job.
- He wanted babes, but he just got a divorce and a few flings.
In short, he feels like a failure. He's frustrated by that so he's decided to reinterpret his whole life, make it more exciting, boost his ego a bit by writing a book that makes his life seem more interesting than it was. He fills it with cloak and dagger intrigue, but there's really nothing there. It's obvious that it's all in his mind.
He depicts himself as an "insider," but offers scant interesting insider stuff. Most of his theories are backed by his daily news source: the NY Times.
His opinion that construction projects drive our economy and decisions is wrong. Foreign infrastructure projects make up less than 1% of the US government budget and not even 0.1% of our economy. Furthermore, he says that "very few" benefit from the new electricity plants we build in Ecuador or Indonesia. Really? So we build a multi-billion dollar plant to power three rich people's homes? Wrong. Thousands of poor people benefit from the roads and electricity plants. That's why they invite us there. Duh! Do we also benefit? Sure! We probably wouldn't do it otherwise! DUH!
The other irritation about this book is that he thinks he's making novel arguments, when they're usually obvious to all. For example, corporatations are self-interested. Wow. I never would have guessed that. Let's add: humans are self-interested. What do you expect Exxon to do? Sell oil for less than it costs them to make it? Do you expect the salesman of a construction firm to not try to get the best deal he can get for his company? Doesn't he want to get a bonus and send his children to a good college?
He whines about people working for a dollar a day in "sweatshops." Are we holding them at gunpoint? No. On the contrary, people in Asia work at Nike's factories to earn their $1 a day for two reasons:
1. It's better than getting 50 cents a day, which is what the local companies pay. Working for a foreign company is PRESTIGIOUS and coveted.
2. Their daily costs are 90 cents a day. Some love to focus on how little people in third world countries make, but they often forget how little it costs them to live. Imagine their conversations about us: "It costs $100/day to live in America. How do they do it? We're much better off here because it costs just 90 cents per day." There are two sides of the equation, Perkins.
CONCLUSION: There were only two reasons I listened to this misleading and overrated book till the end. First, my friend recommended it. Second, I was curious to see what SOLUTION he proposed. It's easy to complain. But what do you think we should do instead?
As I mentioned at the beginning, he places part of the blame on you and me. Great. Well said. Now what? He tells us to drive less. I bet he drives and flies much more than any of us because he's promoting his book. He tell us that we should have a more fair world. That we should have medical services available for all, information should be widespread, and that we should think of the consequences of our actions. Blah... blah.. blah... as you can see: no specifics. Why not? Because it's nobody would like to do what would need to be done. He's asking us to change human nature. Sorry, Perkins, it's ain't going to happen. And Perkins is proof that it won't happen because lives in a nice house, buys food from corporations, votes for the political establishment, doesn't send 50% of his income to third world countries, etc....
Get this if you want to laugh.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Summary: Universally Read
Date: 2008-11-01 -
Comment: You know what the funny thing is about this book?
I doubt that theres very many world leaders or intellectuals who havent either read this book or had a summary of it presented to them.
You can disbelieve the facts presented or disbelieve the conclusions but there is a reason this book is so widely looked at.
The reason is the things he says are both shocking and believable. This is no half baked illuminati conspiracy hes talking about. Its feasible.
Dont buy the negative reviews -you will at MINIMUM be entertained in the extreme. Who would have guessed that James Bond actually looks alot more like John Doe, and doesnt carry a gun. He doesnt have to.
A damn good read.
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