John Perkins
@jperkinsauthor
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Author & activist committed to transforming the world into a sustainable, just, and peaceful place. 🌎 Author of ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.’
Joined June 2009
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Twenty years ago I blew the whistle on American "economic hitmen" — highly paid professionals that use debt and fear to control natural resources in developing countries on behalf of American corporations.
It has gotten so much worse.
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"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, 3rd Edition" describes three waves of economic hitmen—highly paid professionals that use debt and fear to control natural resources in developing countries on behalf of American corporations.
I should know. I was an economic hitman.
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It's here! TODAY 🌏 Confessions of an Economic Hitman: Third Edition hits the shelves of your favorite bookstore.
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It's been 20 years since I exposed the "economic hitman" strategy, whereby rich countries use fear and debt to control the so-called developing world.
China changed the game completely. I can't understate it. They perfected the "economic hitman" strategy.
How? (Part 1)
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If people in this nation understood the history of our corporations, the history of our foreign policy, the history of our banks, and the reality of what we've built in the American century– we would immediately demand change.
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"Nobody should have any illusions. The United States has essentially a one-party system and the ruling party is the business party."
- Noam Chomsky
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For the very rich, endless war is a means to an end – endless profit.
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If people in this nation understood how our corporations work, what our foreign policy is really about, what our banks are really about, and where our tax money really goes— I know we would demand change.
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“The profit motive, when it is the sole basis of an economic system, encourages a cutthroat competition and selfish ambition that inspires men to be more concerned about making a living than making a life.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
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One of the characteristics of a superpower in decline is that its economy becomes deeply dependent on other countries.
For the Romans, it was resources stolen from their far-reaching empire. For the Spanish, it was Inca and Aztec gold and silver.
For America...
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Politicians used war to try to win elections. I predicted
#Trump
would escalate tensions in the
#MiddleEast
during this election year. I fear his decision to
#assassinate
#Soleimani
is a political move. It won’t make Americans safer; it puts all of us, the world, in grave danger.
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We must change economic, social, and political systems that no longer serve us. It really is that simple.
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Would love to!
Please let the author of
@economic_hitman
John Perkins know you would love to see him on my podcast!
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The economic hit man has become stronger since I first wrote "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" in 2004. Now every major corporation has its own economic hit men. They are operating both within the United States and around the world on behalf of huge multinational corporations.
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The economic hit man has become stronger since I first wrote "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" in 2004.
Now every major corporation has its own economic hit men. They operate both within the United States and around the world on behalf of huge multinational corporations.
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If you bomb a city, then rebuild it, the data shows a huge spike in economic activity.
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The US has a long history of overthrowing governments or assassinating their leaders if they don’t enact policies that are favorable to our governments or corporations. I list a few in this video. Comment below with other leaders who suffered at the hands of the US.
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When I was being trained as an economist, a collective delusion was emerging in society: Markets existed separate from nature – outside morality.
This idea metastasized into a precarious, unsustainable society where the rich become richer and the rest of us be damned.
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After years of research, I'm also releasing a book next month that goes a mile deep on this.
You can preorder it now:
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America and Afghanistan are no safer now than they were 20 years ago, when war was first declared. American foreign policy serves the interests of the corporatocracy — not the interests of the public.
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For the very rich, endless war is a means to an end – endless profit.
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Once a nation has been dragged into debt and is at risk of going into default, consultants and economic hit-men, return, this time with an entirely different carrot — and much bigger stick...
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A blatant example of the powers of the corporatocracy — if anyone needed another example!
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“The profit motive, when it is the sole basis of an economic system, encourages a cutthroat competition and selfish ambition that inspires men to be more concerned about making a living than making a life.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Before I first arrived in the Amazon in 1968 I was told that these people were the most impoverished on the planet, since they had absolutely no money. Instead I found was that they were lacking in nothing that was essential.
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Our current form of capitalism is killing competition and stagnating the economy. The system is broken, and each year more of us are forced to realize that what‘s rational for stockholders is dangerous for the economy.
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Corporations are the opposite of good citizens. They bribe politicians to write laws that cheat society on a mammoth scale; most significantly by allowing them to avoid paying many of the very real costs incurred in conducting businesses.
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Over the next few weeks I'll be tweeting key differences between the American EHM strategy that I helped design, and China's optimized EHM strategy.
You should know, and you should be prepared for what's quickly becoming the defining geopolitical story of the century.
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If people in this nation understood the history of our corporations, the history of our foreign policy, the history of our banks, and the reality of what America built in the last century – we would immediately demand change.
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We've convinced ourselves that running the race to have greater wealth and power will make us happy, but we're now waking up to these lies and realizing that pursuing peace and spiritual prosperity for the world is the true answer to happiness. Our leaders need to wake up, too.
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The exact number of active mercenaries worldwide paid with US taxpayer money is unknown, but we do know it is in the millions.
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"Unlimited money in politics violates the essence of what made America a great country ... We've seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors. We've become an oligarchy."
- Jimmy Carter, 39th U.S President
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Indigenous peoples know not to destroy the environment they depend on. Those that didn't know, didn't survive.
In an era of globalization, our native and immediate environment is the whole planet. Will we survive?
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Trump is worried about America becoming a “socialist nation,” yet his tax cuts have saved the nation’s largest banks $21bn. Corporate tax breaks, bank bailouts and fossil fuel subsidies — all acceptable forms of socialist thought to economic elites.
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Every time you open Facebook, something decides what you will and won’t see. Control over that algorithm comes with phenomenal power; perhaps the power to elect presidents. We simply must find alternatives to forces this corrosive to democracy.
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Coronavirus has taught us that we are the virus.
It's by no means a blessing in disguise, but COVID-19 is forcing our deepest flaws to bubble up to the surface. It's an opportunity to change.
Lockdowns across the world to limit the spread of coronavirus have contributed to a noticeable drop in pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in countries like Italy and China.
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Do we want a world ruled by a few billionaires, intent on serving their increasingly voracious appetites? Or do we want a world that reflects the ideals of democracy?
This choice does not lie with Joe Biden. Or Donald Trump. Or any other politician.
The choice is ours.
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In the end, the countries could not repay the debt; so we demanded payment by allowing US companies to exploit their resources, without environmental or social regulations.
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“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” - Warren Buffett
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Hi friends! We have some new faces around here so it’s time that I introduce myself. I’m John, ex-economic hitman turned author, speaker and activist.
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The extreme opulence of the ruling class, over half of which is inherited, is threatening our civilization. The vast majority of that money has been siphoned out of or economy forever. And this isn’t unusual, its inevitable—
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In 2013, the U.S declassified the existence of jackals— operatives that overthrow heads of state to serve American corporations and government agencies— in 1953 Iran.
It wasn't the first time, and it certainly wasn't the last.
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Whatever you do, whoever you are, it's never too late for you to join the rest of the people who are waking up and realizing we must shift our broken Death Economy to a Life Economy. It's going to take each of us, together.
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1/5 The economic hit man system is fueled by something far more dangerous than a global conspiracy. What could it be?
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How does a country with one of highest incarceration rates, privatized prisons, police rage killings, dare criticize human rights in Cuba?
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We’ve been running the capitalism experiment for 240 years. Has its time come?
I’m not sure. The solution could look a lot like capitalism. At the same time, overgrown forests thrive after forest fires— that’s nature’s answer. Maybe we need a forest fire. What do you think?
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The second wave took off after 9/11. Corruption at the top had become legitimized because corporate economic hitmen drafted the laws, and the politicians they financed passed them. Loyalty was to specific corporations rather than the US.
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The goal of domination is cloaked in a critical factor: the perception that those being dominated are receiving benefits.
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One in three families have no savings at all, and 56.3 percent of Americans have less than 1,000 dollars in their checking and savings accounts. The price of absolute basics— education, healthcare, housing— is forcing Americans into a novel and totally bizarre form of poverty.
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The only reason the Economic Hit Man system works is because the rest of us give it permission to work.
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Who was Mohammad Mossadegh? What was the real reason he was overthrown and replaced by the Shah of Iran? Learn the real history in this video.
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Before my lifetime, religious organizations controlled politics. Then it was governments. Today, corporations call the shots. What I call the
#corporatocracy
.
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Psilocybin has just been FDA approved for a drug trial! The West is starting to understand what indigenous societies have embraced for thousands of years: perceptions govern human behavior, and through plants we can access new perceptions — setting a new course for human history.
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When I finish giving speeches, during the question-and-answer period, people often ask if I think our system needs to fall apart before it can change.
I believe we would be wise to accept recent events as symbols that things already HAVE fallen apart.
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Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (Third Edition) is out on Feb. 28th. Available for preorder now:
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The geopolitics of our world have changed radically in my lifetime. Before my lifetime, religious institutions called the shots. Then it was governments. Now it's corporations.
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I’ve lived four lives:
1) economic hit man
2) CEO of a successful alternative energy company
3) expert on indigenous cultures & shamanism
4) writer & activist, exposing the corruption that turned the US into a global empire
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It is outrageous that Trump denied Iranian Foreign Minister access to the UN. It is outrageous that, although the UN is on independent soil, Trump can control who speaks there. It is outrageous that when the world is threatened with war, Trump chooses violence over diplomacy.
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The first wave began when I was getting started as an
#economichitman
in the 1970s. We focused on exploiting lower-income countries that had resources our corporations coveted, like oil.
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Modern wealth inequality is incompatible with democracy.
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Fast-food worker after today's shift in San Antonio, Texas. All food gone in four hours.
These are the essential workers keeping people alive— yet because of their state's minimum wage, they will receive less than thirty dollars for their time. This is exploitation.
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Is Trump creating a crisis with Iran so that when the election comes we'll be at war and he can appeal to the "keep those in charge in charge" idea?
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Brexit: symbol of anger over elitist austerity, tax avoidance, climate changing, immigrant-generating-war policies. . .
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"Americans' most destructive untruth is that it's very easy to make money, and therefore those who have no money blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich, who have had to do less for their poor than any other ruling class since Napoleonic times." - K.V
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It's terrifying to watch Big Business control our governments. But their "power" is only the sum of our buying power. With nothing but our pockets, we can force them to change.
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Young people everywhere are demanding authenticity and freedom instead of material compensation. Their value system is going to change the world. Let's help them rise up and be the leaders of the future.
#LifeEconomy
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The American public has become anesthetized to being exploited.
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“Debt is a form of social control. You can force people to do all kinds of things if you put them in debt first." – Thomas Gokey
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Substituting neoliberal conditionalities with promises of non-interference appeals to leaders of countries accustomed to creditor demands—despite China’s pattern of breaking those promises...
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Hanging out w/ Deepak Chopra, a big supporter of the
#LoveSummit2017
, at Sivananda Ashram in the Bahamas.
@iDreamChange
@DeepakChopra
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Remembering Howard Zinn, my friend and mentor, who died 10 years ago. He was an extremely courageous man who dared stand up to the lies spread by a system that tried (unsuccessfully) to control him. Did Howard Zinn impact your life in any way?
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100 companies alone are to blame for 71% of carbon emissions since 1988. Greening your personal life matters— but while we’re sorting recycling and turning the lights off, fossil fuel corporations are rendering these efforts irrelevant.
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Is anyone surprised by the Panama Papers revelations? Do you wonder though why the media is so focussed on celebs and not on corporatocracy?
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Empires have been colonizing tribes & nations for centuries, appropriating their economies, lands, peoples, governments, and minds in the name of religion, civilization, and westernization. In the last few decades, it’s been done under the subterfuge of spreading democracy.
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Howard Zinn was a professor of mine in college, and a mentor. He was a great patriot, and a defender of the freedom of the press and our freedom to speak out.
For a president to try to silence a voice like his is itself deeply unpatriotic.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." - Howard Zinn
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I'm writing the most important book of my career, the
#ThirdEdition
of
#ConfessionsofanEconomicHitman
, that lays out a plan for each of us to accomplish exactly that, and explores how the EHM system has spread to China.
Watch the 2m trailer here:
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Let's celebrate those who defend the millions of underpaid, mistreated laborers around the world who make the goods we buy. Let's take a stand to raise their wages and improve their conditions.
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As we enter this new year, let’s remember that perceptions mold reality. Let’s commit to moving from perceptions that emphasize short-term gains to ones that honor a sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on this amazing planet.
#HappyNewYear
😊
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We have an econ system based on debt, fear, militarization, & the extraction of resources that support it, consuming itself into extinction.
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Americans live in servitude to debt. I often hear from students graduating college or MBA programs with good intentions: starting companies to clean up pollution, creating jobs in renewable energy. They can't. Their debt has confined them to one option: working for Big Business.
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I take heart in the knowledge that, for most of human history, our ancestors created social-governmental-economic systems that focused on long-term benefits for people and nature and were themselves renewable resources.
Either we return to that, or face extinction.
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The tools we economic hitmen (EHM) used have become FAR more dangerous for the so-called "developing world" by China and their optimized EHM strategy.
Bear with me.
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People from all walks of life were caught in the “debt trap” of skyrocketing student loans, medical debt, predatory payday loans, and tax laws that subsidize the rich at everyone else’s expense.
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We will either change our ideas, values, and actions and accept new ways of relating to other people, resources, countries, governments, and cultures, or we will propel ourselves into extinction – or something unimaginably close to extinction.
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In less than a decade, China’s global takeover became so broad and successful that today it is the largest trading partner with countries on every continent.
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It's not always easy to leave a lifestyle that made you wealthy or powerful to pursue your passions for change and peace. I know how hard it can be, but I also know that it can be done and that doing it is worth all the hardship.
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... "Accept China as a partner in global trade that will not interfere in your government and use Chinese loans to hire our companies to build the infrastructure that makes this possible.”
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Want to know how it works and where it's headed?
I've distilled years of research that applies my experience as an "economic hitman" to prepare you for what's quickly becoming the defining geopolitical story of the century.
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When ancient societies spent all those hours chiseling into the rock, I have the feeling they were aware that their progeny – thousands of years in the future – would need to respect the natural world as much as they did.
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What are we taught in school and what we we not taught? As
#HowardZinn
said, history is written by the victors. Comment below with your favorite books and other media outlets to learn the side of history that is not taught.
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$100 billion to Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics. War is (still) a racket.
“Immoral & Illegal”: U.S. & U.K. Move to Expand Nuclear Arsenals, Defying Global Disarmament Treaties
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"An oligarchy of private capital cannot be effectively checked— even by a democratically organized political society— because private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information."
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Besides the debt trap, one of their other specialties was passing laws that gave their corporations special subsidies, grants, and tax breaks. This second economic hitman wave was highly successful at ripping off the American tax-payer.
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Let's celebrate 4th of July by remembering that the American Revolution was a rebellion against the East India Company oligarchy & tyranny of its leadership, including the King of England. The American patriots objected to being taxed while rich British businessman were not taxed
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“Praying for peace is good,” the
@DalaiLama
once told me, “but if that’s all you do, it’s a waste of time and may be counterproductive.” He went on to explain that if you walk away from such prayers feeling that you’ve done your part, you’re deceiving yourself. “Take action."
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