John Perkins: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

BP and Other Robber Barons: We Reject Your Apology; We Demand Change

Dear Friends,

I wanted to share my article reprinted below from Huffington Post in case you haven't seen it.

"As a consequence of this agreement, the BP Board has reviewed its dividend policy. Notwithstanding BP's strong financial and asset position, the current circumstances require the Board to be prudent and it has therefore decided to cancel the previously declared first quarter dividend scheduled for payment on 21st June, and that no interim dividends will be declared in respect of the second and third quarters of 2010.

The Board remains strongly committed to the payment of future dividends and delivering long term value to shareholders."

BP, along with apologizing to our nation, also notified its stockholders to stop expecting dividend payouts for many quarters to come. It's a sign of our times and corporate priorities that at the moment of the televised apology, the company's statement on its website seemed more concerned with shareholders than it did with the tragic circumstances at hand. See the full statement here.

Simple apologies -- even billion dollar ones to television viewers by the BP executives -- are not acceptable. Nor is it acceptable to stop off-shore US drilling and send our pollution to other fragile areas of our precious planet.

We simply must put an end to the wanton depletion of oil and other resources for bottom-line gain.

And let's not forget just a few of many other examples:

•  Chevron reported that its first quarter profits this year had soared to record highs, up by 148%, and that it is headed toward an annual profit of nearly 20 billion. Chevron is the company that has consistently refused to clean up the mess its subsidiary, Texaco, made in the Ecuadorian Amazon where it knowingly and intentionally dumped more than 18 times the Exxon Valdez oil spill (and at this writing more than 300 times the BP spill) into the rainforests, killing untold numbers of animals, plants, and people. A27 billion lawsuit has been filed against Chevron on behalf of 30,000 indigenous people.

•  Exxon earned over 45 billion in profits in 2009 and has recorded paying no US income taxes -- and continues to refuse to pay for the true costs incurred by the Valdez disaster.

• General Electric generated10 billion in pretax income, but claimed it owed nothing in taxes. In fact, it recorded earning a tax benefit of 1.1 billion.

• In May 2010, The New York Times reported that the nation's largest banks managed to make money from trading every single day during the first three months of this year when the rest of us suffered through a crippling recession. Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase all finished with what is known as a perfect quarter -- they went without losing money on a single day -- as rare as perfect games in Major League Baseball.

We must put an end to a predatory form of capitalism that has spread across
the globe in the past half century. We must not be blinded by its greed and
false promises of a shopping mall nirvana.

This predatory form of capitalism is a disease. It threatens to consume us. When we see pictures of the BP oil spill spreading across the waters, let us all know that this oil spill is also a symbol for the mutant virus contaminating the entire planet. It is a disgustingly slick, real-life horror film that we must choose to no longer view only as audience members. We need to fully comprehend the fact that if you and I do not stop this disease it will kill our children and grandchildren.

In the current global economic crisis, we see how so many resources are wasted casually and depleted unnecessarily. Our corporations continue to drill, mine, extract, and manufacture with reckless abandon. The mantra that the only responsibility of business is to maximize short-term profits has created an unrealistic and devastating effect on the entire world.

The Time for CHANGE Has Arrived
The time has arrived for change, for each of us to insist that President Obama and all the other politicians commit to creating a sustainable and just economic system. Stopping our addiction to oil is a crucial step; yet we must take many steps beyond that.

Let this oil spill be the villain who shakes us awake. As we wake up, let's "Just say No" to BP -- "No, your apology is not good enough." Let's say "No" to Chevron, Exxon, GE, Goldman Sachs and all the other robber barons who promote an economic system that is destroying us.

Let's say "Yes" to establishing a new priority: a sustainable and just economy. Let's commit to standing firm, walking hand-in-hand together along a path that leads to a world we will want to pass on to future generations.

Read my  full article and reader comments at Huffington Post.

I'm also looking forward to seeing you at one of the many upcoming speaking events. The list for all events can be found on my website – http://www.johnperkins.org , as well as on my Facebook Fan Page – John Perkins Author .

You can also order our books through your favorite Internet shop – although if you go through http://www.dreamchange.org  , a % of the sale price will be contributed to the nonprofit I founded nearly 20 years ago.

Many thanks and blessings,

John

John Perkins
NY Times bestselling author

HOODWINKED!
An Economic Hit Man Reveals
Why the World Financial Markets Imploded
and What We Need to Do to Remake Them

by John Perkins
Bestselling author of
CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN

Order a YOUR COPY at Amazon.com
 

HIDDEN CONNECTIONS: Fake Accounting, Oil, & Greed

Dear friends,

I recently shared this message on Huffington Post and wanted share it with you...

While countries around the world continue to watch their economies collapse, and Goldman-Sachs leaders testify to Congress about how they manipulated both their shareholders and the American public, we are also faced with a tragic oil spill on our most fragile coastlines.

The sad truth is that oil, greed and fake accounting work hand in hand to empower those who have -- and significantly disempower those who do not.

In my book, HOODWINKED I talk about the 30,000 Ecuadorians who filed a lawsuit against Texaco (since purchased by Chevron). (See this link - http://tinyurl.com/34ovl2r ). The company destroyed vast sections of rain forest and the toxic wastes from its operations allegedly killed many people and made many more chronically sick.

It is often the indigenous people who are the ultimate losers in the greed wars. How can they with so little to start with take a stand against a huge oil company? Despite the challenges they faced, the Ecuadorians did do this and continue to battle.

Trudie Styler who visited the devastated Ecuadorian site and joined me at a public talk in Quito several years ago hosted a concert at Carnegie Hall on May 13, 2010. It featured her husband Sting, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, and Debbie Harry and was a fundraiser for the Rainforest Fund, founded by Trudie and Sting in 1989. Afterwards Trudie expressed to me feelings similar to those she often says publicly:

"You know," Trudie said, "I love beaches and coastal environments. I love the ocean. I'm appalled by the terrible scenes of devastation that etched themselves forever into our consciousness after the Exxon Valdez disaster and now are haunting us once again along the Gulf Coast. I am dismayed by the continuing destruction of our delicate ecosystems -- of birds, fish, animals, and plants. This is absolutely unacceptable. We MUST protect or coastlines from such tragedies.

"However, I have also flown over thousands of miles of rain forests that have been destroyed by oil. I have been with mothers sitting at the bedsides of their children, as they lie in terrible agony, innocent victims of the most horrible deaths imaginable -- because oil drilling poisoned their water and their food sources. I have stood beside once-pristine lakes now turned into black tar. So, I feel compelled to ask everyone to take into account the entire planet as we mourn for the Gulf Coast and seek ways to protect our beaches. Let us avoid the temptation to say 'not in my back yard; take the pollution someplace else.'" Let us rather commit to freeing ourselves from the oil addiction that ultimately will destroy all of us."

Steve Donziger, a New York lawyer who has devoted more than a decade to the case, repeats every chance he gets, "And most of the consumers in the United States have no idea. They are oblivious to the true price of the oil they consume. And Big Oil wants to keep it that way."

These statements express a sad truth about so much of what is going on in the world today and the inadequacy of our accounting procedures to assign the true costs to products. Oil is a classic example of how those who sit on resources are inadequately compensated while those who consume them are charged prices that do not begin to cover the actual costs. In light of last week's oil spill, it seems we are seeing the same thing happen again with BP and the countless millions the oil spill will affect horribly for a decade.

Many costs are never taken into account when determining the price of the goods and services we consume. They are all too often considered "externalities." Those externalities include the social and environmental costs of the destruction of resources, the pollution, and the burdens on society of workers who become injured or ill and receive little or no health care; the indirect funding of companies that are permitted to market hazardous products, dump wastes into rivers or oceans, and pay employees less than a living wage, just to name a few.

All of these and more contribute to the current global economic crisis. Because so many resources are underpriced, they are wasted casually and depleted unnecessarily. Instead of recycling or using them more efficiently, we continue to drill, mine, extract, and manufacture with reckless abandon.

Is the "Age of Reckless Abandon" really what we want to be most remembered for in generations to come?

You can also order our books through your favorite Internet shop – although if you go through http://www.dreamchange.org  , a % of the sale price will be contributed to the nonprofit I founded nearly 20 years ago.

Please share this email with all your lists and please follow me on Twitter - @economic_hitman .

I'm also looking forward to seeing you at one of the many upcoming speaking events. The list for all events can be found on my website – http://www.johnperkins.org , as well as on my Facebook Fan Page – John Perkins Author .

Many thanks and blessings,

John

John Perkins
NY Times bestselling author

Photo Credit: Reuters May 23, 2010

EARTH DAY: Putting Dreams in ACTION

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Earth Day gives us an extraordinary opportunity to reflect on how we can all come together and build a sustainable world. I will be blogging as part of the Earth Day network and encourage each of you to hit the Earth Day Network site and see how you can participate in this wonderful celebration as well - http://www.earthday.net/ .

I have recently been in contact with Chevy and Jayni Chase and have become a proud supporter of the newly founded Green Community Schools program – I note in this newsletter later how much my 7th grade teacher meant in my life and I think it's vital that we enable and empower our youth to have the best schools possible with which to dream their lives.

I hope that you will visit the site - http://www.GREENCommunitySchools.org  and join their Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/GREENCommunitySchools and follow them on Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/ourGREENschools  .

In my books, "The World Is As You Dream It" and "Shapeshifting" as well as "Hoodwinked," I detail my own journey of dreaming and believing in more than what the modern media tell us is true.

While we face a multitude of obstacles with the economic downturn: ongoing wars, job losses and environmental crisis, I prefer to have hope.

I feel incredibly optimistic when I hold my grandson in my arms. Holding him reminds me of the power of dreams and children. As infants we enjoy an intimacy with everything around us; tiny stones, butterflies, flowers, birds, animals (both stuffed and real). We live in a world of beauty and imagination. Ecstasy comes easily. We feel at one with nature and the realm of dreams. As adults we mistakenly begin to put this type of knowing behind us.

The POWER of DREAMS
The Native North American shaman, John Fire Lame Deer, writes in his book, Lame Deer, Sioux Medicine Man (London Quartet, 1980, p.157) , "They have forgotten the secret knowledge of their dreams. They don't use knowledge the spirit has put into every one of them; they are not even aware of this, and so they stumble along blindly on the road to nowhere – a paved highway which they themselves bulldoze and make smooth so that they can get faster to the big, empty hole which they'll find at the end, waiting to swallow them up."

As my seventh grade teacher, Mrs. Simpson, told me so many years ago, "Dreams do come true, you know." She was referring to day time "dreams", our conscious aspirations, as well as the night-time ones.

The secret knowledge described by Lame Deer is no secret to most of the people we erroneously refer to as "primitive." Throughout the world, these people understand the power of dreams. When we honor our dreams we empower ourselves. In all the places I've traveled -- Asia, Europe, Himalayas, South and Central America -- in the company of so many indigenous teachers/dreamers, I have learned the power of dreams. These guides have taught me that all power, dreams, energy, balance, and health originate in the Earth. If we are to survive as a species we must set as our highest priority the preservation of Earth herself.

As you know I founded the organization Dream Change – http://www.dreamchange.org  , a world wide grass roots movement of people from diverse cultures and backgrounds that is dedicated to shifting consciousness and promoting sustainable lifestyles for the individual and the global community. The objective of inspiring earth-honoring changes in consciousness is accomplished through programs that educate and foster environmental and social balance. DC was originated to encourage new ways of living.

With Dream Change's Director and my co-workshop facilitator Llyn Roberts, I've taken groups of people to many different places and been blessed at every turn in living my dreams while fully awake. Every culture on this planet believes in the incredible wisdom of dreams or comes from a heritage that once believed in this. Dreaming -- setting our positive intents -- and then taking actions to materialize them are the most powerful things we do in life.

Individual dreams affect the courses of our lives; collective dreams determine the futures of civilizations.

I'm determined to spend the rest of my life dreaming and working toward a just, sustainable and peaceful world for my grandson. I believe we can restore rainforests, polluted lakes, promote sustainable energy, and help the world's starving people feed themselves.

The choice does not lie with our political leadership, no matter what the party.

The choice and dream is ours to create and we are up to the challenge. Llyn Roberts SHAMANIC REIKI (O Books), along with my latest book, HOODWINKED (Random House), is available through all the stores.

You can also order our books through your favorite Internet shop – although if you go through http://www.dreamchange.org  , a % of the sale price will be contributed to the nonprofit I founded nearly 20 years ago.

Please share this email with all your lists and please follow me on Twitter - @economic_hitman .

I'm also looking forward to seeing you at one of the many upcoming speaking events. The list for all events can be found on my website – http://www.johnperkins.org , as well as on my Facebook Fan Page – John Perkins Author .

Many thanks and blessings,

John Perkins

Collateral Killing

Dear Friends,

The video referenced below is tough to watch, but please watch it. Be patient, stick with it to the end (17 min), as some of the commentaries in the middle and at the end are very insightful. Every one living in the United States needs to see this - and take action to halt this criminal insanity that our tax dollars continue to pay for. Please pass on to all your mailing lists.

Please go to this link - http://wikileaks.org/ and pass this link to your friends and family.

I learned about it on DEMOCRACY NOW!: (see below excerpt)

Massacre Caught on Tape:
US Military Confirms Authenticity of Their Own Chilling
Video Showing Killing of Journalists

The US military has confirmed the authenticity of newly released video showing US forces indiscriminately firing on Iraqi civilians. On Monday, the website WikiLeaks.org posted footage taken from a US military helicopter in July 2007 as it killed twelve people and wounded two children. The dead included two employees of the Reuters news agency, photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and driver Saeed Chmagh. We speak with WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange and Salon.com blogger Glenn Greenwald.

Thank you for reading this post and please know that I appreciate all your support of my books and our great work together to change this world for future generations.

And please see my website for my scheduled events - http://www.johnperkins.org .
And join me on Twitter [email protected]_hitman.

Many thanks and blessings,

John

John Perkins
New York Times bestselling author of "CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN" and "THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE"

http://www.JohnPerkins.org

http://www.dreamchange.org

HOODWINKED!
An Economic Hit Man Reveals
Why the World Financial Markets Imploded
and What We Need to Do to Remake Them

by John Perkins
Bestselling author of
CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN

Order a YOUR COPY at Amazon.com
 

Don't Let the Robber Barons Fool You

I thought it might be timely for April Fool's Day to talk about the foolish status of our modern day celebrity and robber baron fascination. As I write in Hoodwinked, we've made icons out of the likes of Donald Trump, a ruthless real estate developer, who publicly glorifies the firing and humiliation of people on TV.

During this ratings season millions tune in to see Trumps' glee of firing fellow celebs on "Celebrity Apprentice," and Trump announced (APWire, March 18, 2010) that the next season is already in filming. The AP story cites, "Trump's revived Apprentice will recruit candidates who have lost their jobs, are stuck with jobs they don't like to just get by or have finished college with no offers in sight."

Trump has been quoted as saying, "You can't be emotional in business; it will flat out kill you."

So, while we Americans are out of work, hungry, angry, and disempowered, this might be the perfect opportunity for all of us to take a good hard look at these so-called celebrities and icons that we prop up and, by association, expect future generations to emulate.

During the past four decades, we the people have sent a strong message of support to the modern equivalent of the robber barons. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, is a prime example. He eliminated over 100,000 jobs at his company while taking huge bonuses and raises. He fought New York state, vehemently opposing environmental regulations that would have cleaned up the Hudson River and protected the lives of his own employees. By shifting GE from primarily manufacturing to financial services, he was a major driving force behind the U.S, economy's unhealthy transformation from production to paper.

When I speak to young students and at MBA conferences, I say, "If you want to honor Jack Welch, give him credit for being one of the chief architects of our current environmental and economic crisis."

We plaster the faces of billionaires on the covers of our magazines and praise them for donating fortunes to charities without bothering to point out that they made many times those fortunes by beating down their competitors. We watch shows about the rich and famous and in so doing, send messages to our children that they should aspire to living in mansions and traveling in private jets – regardless of how much environmental and social havoc is caused in the process.

Do we really want our future generations to embrace the horrible message of the bumper sticker, "He who dies with the most toys wins"?

The truth, we all know, is that no matter how many toys we amass we leave them behind when we die, just as we leave a broken environment, an economy that only benefits the richest, and a legacy of empowering greed over goodness.It is now time to commit to following a new path.

I believe that every one of us can change this by making our own demands on the media. We can demand that the prime media outlets cover how men and women live their lives meaningfully. Men and women who found non-profits, work tirelessly in aiding others, and don't ever base their success on a bottom-line profit margin for shareholders.

What if we all boycotted these shows? Celebrity Apprentice and other similar ones during this season? And wrote emails demanding they stop producing these shows? It is really very simple. Here, for example, is the link for NBC  http://www.nbc.com/contact/general/  .

This month, I encourage you to tweet out, Facebook message, and email the corporate entities in media and tell them we've had enough of CELEBRITY. Use their Twitter profile (eg - http://www.twitter.com/celebApprentice, and post your message to your followers. NO MORE ROBBER BARON CELEBRITIES.

OTHER RESOURCES:

And I know I have mentioned the film "Crude", an amazing and beautifully filmed documentary about the critical lawsuit filed on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadorian people in the Amazon against Texaco/Chevron. A MUST SEE! I wanted to note that it is now available on DVD through http://www.crudethemovie.com  .

I'm also looking forward to seeing you at one of the many upcoming speaking events. The list for all events can be found on my website – http://www.johnperkins.org  as well as on my Facebook Fan Page – John Perkins Author .

Many thanks and blessings,

John

John Perkins
New York Times bestselling author of "CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN" and "THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE"

http://www.JohnPerkins.org

http://www.dreamchange.org

HOODWINKED!
An Economic Hit Man Reveals
Why the World Financial Markets Imploded
and What We Need to Do to Remake Them

by John Perkins
Bestselling author of
CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN

Order a YOUR COPY at Amazon.com
 

Politicians Will Not Change the World

Dear Friends,

Many of you have asked how I feel about the Obama administration . . .

In short:  The fact that we moved from a conservative Republican oilman from Texas to a liberal Democratic African American from Illinois --- and yet change plods along at a snail's pace --- if at all, it is a confirmation of what I discuss in detail in my book, HOODWINKED.

Our president has little real power.

In recent years, geopolitics have shifted; the corporatocracy rules. Democrats and Republicans alike fall under the thumb of the multinational corporations.

We have entered a time of realignment not unlike that when city states joined together to form nations. Except this time it is global; countries are becoming less relevant. The emerging rulers are corporate CEOs, members of the corporatocracy.

Like huge clouds swirling around the globe, their conglomerates reach every continent, country, and village. They are unrestricted by national borders or any particular sets of law. Although many are headquartered in the United States and call upon the U.S. military to protect their interests, they feel no sense of loyalty to any one country. They form partnerships with the Chinese and the Taiwanese, with the Israeli and Arab nations, with Brazilians, Australians, Russians, Indonesians, Congolese—with anyone who possesses resources or offers markets they covet. As we have seen with Halliburton, they think nothing of relocating to places like Dubai, where they pay fewer taxes.

They hire a vast army of lobbyists who influence every politician in Washington and every other capital. They either own the mainstream media or control it through their advertising budgets.

The good news: For the first time in history this new empire has been created not by military force, but through the sale of goods and services. And the marketplace is democratic—once we decide to see it as such. It is the ultimate polling booth. Corporations exist only because we vote for them in their stores, at the malls, and over the Internet.

It is up to us to decide which companies will succeed and which ones will fail.

Politicians will not change the world, because they are beholden to the big corporations. AND the corporations are dependent upon you and me.

About a hundred fifty years ago we as a nation voted for Abraham Lincoln, and then we fought a Civil War to get rid of slavery. Later our women picketed Woodrow Wilson everywhere he went over women's suffrage; they would not allow him to send troops into WWI to defend democracy in Europe "until we women enjoy democracy here at home." We held teach-ins for Richard Nixon to educate him and the country on the travesty that had become the Vietnam War. We won those struggles, because we the people forced our leaders to change. In recent decades, we forced corporations to clean up polluted rivers, do away with ozone layer destroying aerosols, and remove trans fats from our foods.

Today, we the people are called upon to speak again. When we impact bottom lines, we change stock prices and attract the attention of boards of directors. Those boards influence the decisions made in the halls of legislatures.

We must not look to President Obama to change the world. We must do it – we must force those in control to adopt a new goal for the people of our planet: creating a sustainable, just, and peaceful world for all who live on this special space-station we call home.

Perhaps President Obama's greatest gift to us will be that he taught us a lesson in democracy. We the people must take charge. We cannot look to a president to change the world. It is up to each of us to do it.

I thank you for your continued support of my work and my books.

Please share this email with all your lists and please follow me on Twitter - @economic_hitman .

OTHER RESOURCES:

I hope you'll also take time to listen to this recent interview I did with Wayne Hurlbert of BlogTalkRadio.com - http://tinyurl.com/yzckhmr .

And I know I have mentioned the film "Crude", an amazing and beautifully filmed documentary about the critical lawsuit filed on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadorian people in the Amazon against Texaco/Chevron. A MUST SEE! I wanted to note that it is now available on DVD through http://www.crudethemovie.com  .

I'm also looking forward to seeing you at one of the many upcoming speaking events. The list for all events can be found on my website – http://www.johnperkins.org  as well as on my Facebook Fan Page – John Perkins Author .

Many thanks and blessings,

John

John Perkins
New York Times bestselling author of "CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN" and "THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE"

http://www.JohnPerkins.org

http://www.dreamchange.org

HOODWINKED!
An Economic Hit Man Reveals
Why the World Financial Markets Imploded
and What We Need to Do to Remake Them

by John Perkins
Bestselling author of
CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN

Order a YOUR COPY at Amazon.com
 

You Will Change the World!

Dear friends,

I’m writing to you having just returned from a wonderful trip to Costa Rica. Each time I travel to that sacred place I’m thankful to be on this earth and am reminded how fragile and precious these places are.

As I wrote in the The World Is As Your Dream It, “ our entire economy revolves around what we think of as 'heavy' industry and 'durable' goods, and this is completely contrary to the natural world and those who live close to it.”

When I’m asked what sort of dream can we create together, I always respond, “It has to be one that honors the Earth above all else and that is not dependent on the violent technologies we have come to associate with mining and constructing.”

In Hoodwinked, I ask, “Do we want a world ruled by a few billionaires, intent on controlling the planet’s resources with the goal of serving their increasingly voracious appetites?”

I know, that you, like me would answer, “Absolutely not.”

We should not forget the power of what a small group of people determined to make a change in the world can engender. This week was the fiftieth anniversary of the four North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College students who sat-in at the Woolworth’s whites only lunch counter.

While at the time its significance was not taken notice of by any major newspapers, it launched an entire movement dedicated to the eradication of Jim Crow segregation.

You, I, your neighbors, and your loved ones are all capable of engendering great events that will benefit mankind and our future generations. No matter what the setbacks if you consciously and intentionally choose for every interaction to be one of authenticity and empowerment for all, than you will CHANGE the world.

And I will champion your efforts!

You can also always visit my site for a full event schedule – http://www.johnperkins.org .

I also posted a new Huffington Post blog titled, “The Tremor Felt Round the World” in response to many of you writing and asking what I felt about the tragedy in Haiti.  I wanted to include that link for you here -   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-perkins/the-tremor-felt-round-the_b_431894.html  .

I continue to be grateful for all you’re doing to support my work and my latest book,  HOODWINKED (Random House). Each month for those of you who post a review on Amazon and send us a link to it at the [email protected] account, we will enter your email into a drawing for a signed copy of the book as well.

Please share this email with all your lists and please follow me on Twitter - @economic_hitman .

Many thanks and blessings,

John

John Perkins
New York Times bestselling author of "CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN" and "THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE"

http://www.JohnPerkins.org

http://www.dreamchange.org

HOODWINKED!
An Economic Hit Man Reveals
Why the World Financial Markets Imploded
and What We Need to Do to Remake Them

by John Perkins
Bestselling author of
CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN

Order a YOUR COPY at Amazon.com

NEW BOOK: Democracy NOW Interview + 8 KEY FACTS

Dear Friends,

I'm excited to announce that my new book is out: HOODWINKED: Former Economic Hit Man John Perkins Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded—and How to Remake Them. Below I've provided two things that serve as a primer to the book. First, is my interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. My conversation with Amy gave me an opportunity to set the stage for the work we all have ahead. Additionally, below, I have provided a detailed summary of eight key facts about HOODWINKED to support and inspire your contributions creating the change we need.

John Perkins Interview with Amy Goodman - Democracy NOW

 

8 KEY POINTS to Support Your Important Work: 

HOODWINKED provides the facts – and many personal stories from economic hit men, jackals, business execs, politicians, and educators – behind the following eight key points:

1. The United States.The US – in fact the world – has been stolen by the very wealthy and powerful, the corporatocracy.

2. Failed System. This has created a failed system – unsustainable, unjust, unstable, dangerous.

3. Predatory Capitalism. The cause is a mutant, viral form of capitalism – what I call “Predatory Capitalism” that began with President Reagan and the philosophy that a) the only goal of business is to make profits, b) corporations should not be regulated, and c) every major economic sector should be privatized. This virus has spread with each subsequent administration.

4. Mutant forms of Capitalism. 9/11 was a shock used by the Bush administration to boost this mutant form of capitalism to unprecedented new levels: privatize the military (and introduce privatized Homeland Security); further deregulate financial institutions; radically increase military budgets; and encourage shopping and excessive materialism.

5. The Crises We Really Need to Fear. The 9/11 shock distracted us from the crises we really need to fear: climate change, resources diminishing at accelerating rates, increasing prices for fuel, foods, and other essentials, violence that results from exploited people living desperate, starving lives, overpopulation, general environmental and social degradation. For the first time in history, every human being – every life form – is confronted by these same crises.

6. Countries and presidents have lost power. Corporations have the power. World geopolitics may be represented by huge clouds (the multinational companies) drifting around the planet; they know no borders and obey no specific sets of laws.

7.  The GOOD NEWS: we control corporations. The market place is democratic. The way out is for us the people to support companies that are committed to a sustainable, just, peaceful world; to institute regulations that codify this; to recognize as heroes men and women who are dedicated to creating a world our children and their brothers and sisters around the planet will want to inherit -- in essence to rid ourselves of the mutant virus and create a new type of capitalism.

8. We're in this TOGETHER. We are all in this together and we are all communicating with each other. The Internet and cell phones offer opportunities to unite us like never before in the human experience.

We the people must create the change.

I am encouraged by grassroots movements across this planet (described in HOODWINKED) and by the commitment of students on campuses in the US and throughout the world. Please read HOODWINKED, share it with your friends, and let’s together create a sustainable, just, and peaceful world.

I hope too that I will see you at one of the upcoming book signings – please see my website for the schedule of events – http://www.johnperkins.org .

John Perkins

Visit the John Perkins COLLECTIONat the Global Dialogue Center

Economic Meltdown Is Not a FLUKE

Dear friends,
 
This economic meltdown is not a fluke. 
It had to happen to shake us awake.
 
An economic system where less than 5% of the world’s population (us in the U.S.) consumes more than 25% of the resources is not a viable model. It can not be replicated in China, India, Africa, or Latin America.
 
It is a failure.
We must change it.
 
That is why I wrote my latest book HOODWINKED. It describes the deep underlying causes of the current crises and provides a blueprint for change, for creating a world our children will want to inherit.
 
HOODWINKED (Random House) will be in bookstores Nov 10, 2009, but I urge you to pre-order today. I truly hope this book will empower the change that needs to take place during this crisis. I know that many of you have been great supporters of all my work and I hope that you can assist me by sending this email to as many people as you can to help lift the visibility of the book. 
  
HOODWINKED is by far the most important book I have written and I look forward to sharing it with you. 
  
A more detailed description is below.

Join me at an UPCOMING EVENT...
I’m also looking forward to seeing you at one of the many upcoming speaking events. The list for all events can be found on my website – http://www.johnperkins.org as well as on my Facebook Fan Page, search John Perkins Author .
 
Many thanks and blessings,
 
John Perkins
Twitter - @economic_hitman

About HOODWINKED by John Perkins

HOODWINKED!
An Economic Hit Man Reveals
Why the World Financial Markets Imploded
and What We Need to Do to Remake Them

By John Perkins
Bestselling author of
CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN

Order a YOUR COPY at Amazon.com
 

Former economic hit man John Perkins has experienced today’s economic collapse before. The banking industry and sub-prime mortgage fiascos, the rising tide of unemployment, and the shuttering of businesses are all too familiar in the Third World countries where he worked. He was both an observer and a perpetrator of events that have now sent the US – in fact the entire planet – spiraling toward disaster.

The real cause of our global financial meltdown is what Perkins calls predatory capitalism – the mutant form of an economic system that encourages widespread exploitation of the few to benefit a small number of already very wealthy people. A new geo-politics has emerged; today the CEOs of big corporations, rather than governments, control human and natural resources around the globe, as well as politicians and the media. Their arrogance, gluttony, and mismanagement have brought us to the perilous edge. The solutions will not be "return to normal ones".

There is a way out. “Unlike other empires,” Perkins says, “this one is not built primarily on the back of the military. It is subtle, market-based, and it depends on our voluntary choices. We hold the power –  if we only recognize it.” Hoodwinked provides a blueprint for creating an economy that fosters a sustainable, just, and peaceful world for us and our children. It offers concrete actions each and every one of us can take.

John Perkins is the bestselling author of the classic expose Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and an economist who has enjoyed a front-row seat to world events for the past four decades—as the Chief Economist of a major consulting firm and economic hit man for the American corporatocracy in the 1970s, CEO of an energy company in the 1980s, and founder of nonprofits in the 1990s and 2000s. He spent the past 5 years traveling across the US and to many other countries where he met with government and corporate leaders, spoke at universities and business conferences, dialogued with people from all walks of life, and gained invaluable insights into the underlying causes of the current crisis.  Now, in Hoodwinked, he shares those experiences, along with in-depth analysis, and the exciting stories about economic hit men, rogue politicians, and the secret world of CIA-sponsored jackals similar to ones readers thrilled to in Confessions.

Early Reviews of HOODWINKED

John Perkins has been in and out of the world of high finance and low ethics, and in HOODWINKED he not only illuminates that world with dramatic stories and keen insights, but suggests what we might do to create a better society. 

--- Howard Zinn
author, A People’s History of the United States
and retired professor of Political Science at Boston University

Another thriller from the master storyteller with an insider view. Perkins takes us once again into the dark nether world of corrupt bankers and economic hit men who lure the unsuspecting into financial ruin and reveals the connection between the folks who for decades enriched themselves at the expense of the world’s poor and those who now reap billions at the expense of America. Same people, same scams.

--- David Korten
author, Agenda for a New Economy and 
The Great Turning, and board chair of YES! magazine.

John Perkins' engaging narrative draws us into a brilliant analysis of capitalism's shadow side, and points us to a hopeful path to a better future. Hoodwinked is a must-read for anyone who cares about our economic welfare, social justice, and our collective well-being.

--- Daniel Goleman
author, Ecological Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence

John Perkins COLLECTION at the Global Dialogue Center

Latin America Strikes Back

Dear Friends,

We may feel hoodwinked by the big US banks, but the Latin Americans are striking back!

On September 26, seven presidents signed the document officially starting the Bank of the South. Opening with $7 billion in capital that is expected to grow to $20 billion in coming months, the bank’s objective is to finance development projects in agriculture, energy, and health care for member nations and to boost trade throughout the hemisphere.

To a large degree this bank will replace the World Bank, IMF, USAID, and other “development” organizations that have been used by economic hit men to enrich the corporatocracy and gain control over Third World resources.

The presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela signed the document during the historic Africa-South America Summit held in Venezuela following the 2009 meetings opening the United Nations in New York.

“This is historic for the true independence of Latin America,” Ecuador’s president Correa said. “We’re done depending on the North for, on the one hand, kneeling down to ask for some dollars and, on the other, sending billions of dollars to them. We’ve had enough of that contradiction.”

As detailed in my new book, HOODWINKED, a wave is sweeping Latin America. People who have been exploited for centuries are rising up and demanding that their resources be used to lift them out of poverty. During the Africa-South America Summit, the wave spread across the Atlantic.

Now it is time for us in the US to also surf that wave!

John

New Book!
Hoodwinked
An Economic Hit Man Reveals
Why the World Financial
Markets Imploded...and
What We Need to Do to
Remake Them
by John Perkins
NY Times Bestselling Author
Pre-Order at Amazon.com
November 2009