Confessions of an Economic Hitman

I recently picked up John Perkins' book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: The Shocking Story of How America Really Took Over the World, for the shockingly low price of £3 at HMV.

Whilst the title (and the cover blurb) suggest that this will be a tell-all book about America's nefarious dealings in various under-developed countries, it's more about the author's personal journey towards (what he believes to be) redemption, after spending a significant amount of time conning countries out of large amounts of money and pocketing some for himself.

The book claims to be non-fiction, but the style and tone suggest otherwise, and some of the stories he tells should be taken with a pinch of salt, as I suspect they have been embellished to fit in with his narrative. The most obvious example is his conversation with an elderly Afghan man he had never met before near the World Trade Centre a few weeks after 9/11, which spurs him to finish this book.

He also sometimes misses key facts about some of the people he encounters - omissions which border on the negligent. For example, reading the book you would probably not know that Torrijos and Manuel Noriega (two of Panama's leaders) were military dictators.

Yet despite these shortcomings, I did enjoy reading it. It's only 250 pages and I finished it in four days.