Even before Monday, when the failure of the No Banker Left Behind bill spurred a going-out-of-business sale on Wall Street, people were calling our recent fiscal troubles a financial 9/11.  So it has been strangely appropriate listening to John Perkins’ Confessions of an Economic Hit Man against that background.  Perkins claims to have been an agent of financial catastrophe in several developing nations, all of whom would rejoice at the collapse of our economy the same way that many celebrated the collapse of the Towers.

Perkins tells an interesting story.  As a young economist, he was hired by a large utilities developer to produce wildly optimistic forecasts for economic growth that would follow the building of dams, power plants, etc.  Based on his work, wealthy countries made huge loans to poor ones.  The ensuing development work mostly enriched a tiny minority of elites while destroying the environment and depriving the poor of their land and livelihood.  And these debts were never meant to be paid back.  The idea was that our debtors would be obligated to us to provide us large contracts for construction, access to oil. etc.  Thus were economies ruined and masses kept in poverty, all to feed the machines of the world’s largest corporations - the corporatocracy.  And Perkins is emphatic that this isn’t a conspiracy at work - that is, there are no men in black somewhere running the whole show.  It’s just the way the world economy has evolved, with the rich nations demanding goods and the poor ones providing them - at the expense of their own resources, freedom, health, and lives.

The problem is knowing if Perkins tells a true story.  He was in the deception business for decades and apparently made good money in it.  Now he’s making good money with his tell-all best-seller.  On the wikipedia page for Confessions, you can find a summary of the book’s critics and the reasons for their doubts.

I have no way of knowing whether Perkins is for real, whether the CIA really scouted out economic hit men like him.  For what it’s worth though, I think that his picture of a corporatocracy is close to the truth, with the following implications:

• Presidential elections are sideshows.  The real action is in a hundred corporate boardrooms - at Nike, Wal-Mart, Bechtel, Haliburton, GM, McDonalds, etc., etc.  Indeed, it costs so much money to run for President (or for the Senate) that these folks can’t help but be beholden to big business.
• Wars are about money rather than religion or ideology.  Those who claim to be destroying infidels or spreading freedom often become the pawns of skillful leaders who can spin economic gain with language that appeals to the beliefs and values of the people.
• One world government?  We’re almost there.  One way to understand Revelation is to expect the entire world to be pulled together under one malicious leader.  When I think about world politics, it seems we’ve never been further apart.  But when I look deeper, I see a corporatocracy that is truly global.  And remember:  The mark of the beast in Revelation is about transacting business!  Of course this outlook invites a disturbingly close-to-home interpretation of the Fall of Babylon in Revelation 18.

The most disturbing thought of all is this:  If there is a greedy corporate machine out there chewing people up, who are its supporters, its customers?  We are!  We’re the ones who buy things and who demand constant economic growth.

No wonder Jesus told us to forsake the economic idol, to sell our possessions or give them away, and live simply.

P. S. Thanks to Dick Dolen for the loan of this fascinating audio book!