Confessions of an Economic Hitman-Blog 1

This book is a memoir of a man who calls himself an "Economic Hitman". An EHM, as he calls them, is someone who cheats developing countries out of resources or money in order to help expand US corportation. However, the beginning of the book has less to do with EHMs and more to do with the authors childhood. He struggles with his self identity at an early age when he is raised at a boarding school by two parents with a huge superiority complex. When he gets a scholarship to boarding school he struggles with being himself and his parents force him to reject his old middleclass friends. The narrator tells us that, "With my parents' prodding, I rejected everything to do with the town and never saw my old friends again," (4). He struggles with his keeping his own identity while his parents force a different one upon him. It is perhaps because of the multiple personalities he took on that he adapted so well to being an EHM which requires changing ones personality to make them more persuasive depending on where they are. His struggle with identity also made him resentful of the wealthy kids at his school and his drive to surpass them motivated him. The author tells us that "...rather than rebelling, I repressed my rage and expressed my frustration by excelling," (5). The authors childhood issues are what made him succeed like he did and it was his anger which allowed him to gain such power. Had the author been content in his childhood and unmotivated, he would never have become an EHM and held such influence.
A bit later in the book the author starts to deal with ethical choices when he first becomes an EHM. He joins the Peace Corps as a cover to explore and exploit oil rich areas of the Amazon and quickly gets signed to a large company called MAIN. He finds himself selling out so he can surpass his classmates. The author describes his reason for his employment with MAIN when he says, "I knew that some of my class mates who got rejected by the draft and went on to earn MBAs and other graduate degrees would be overcome with jealousy,"(12). Because of his greedy lust for power he will make choices that will affect countries which he has no right to be involved in. His being hired as an "economist" meant that he will receive extreme amounts of money, which is really "blood money" for all the destruction he will cause in developing countries.


Perkins, John. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. New York: Plume, 2006.