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1. John Perkins’ Confessions focuses on his career as an EHM serving U.S. interests in the struggle for the developing world during the cold war. What changes does he see in the EHM game since he left Charles T. Main in the early 1980s?
2. Media accounts of Confessions often concentrated on the cloak-and-dagger elements of his career. What roles do economic hit men play?
3. What methods do First World countries use to maintain their control over developing countries?
4. We hear a lot about the benefits of free trade. Did the U.S. and other advanced countries build their economies through free trade? To what extent do you think they practice what they preach today?
5. S.C. Gwynne in Chapter 2 gives us a sense of what it’s like to suddenly become a player in global financial markets. Why did it seem to make sense to Cleveland Trust, the bank Gwynne worked for, to make risky loans to companies in the Philippines and other Third World countries? Who ended up paying the money back?
6. In Chapter 3 John Christensen provides us with an insider’s account of how the offshore banking system works, and for whom. How do secretive offshore banks help wealthy individuals and multinational corporations evade taxes?
7. Do you think that anonymous, secret “Swiss” bank accounts serve any legitimate purpose?
8. How do offshore banks encourage and enable corruption?
9. Chapter 4 reviews the complex story of the BCCI affair, which ended with BCCI’s bankruptcy and losses of over $10 billion. Why did the Bank of Credit and Commerce International receive so much special treatment for so long?
10. BCCI had a tangled web of relations with the CIA, a range of other U.S. agencies and politicians, Pakistan’s ISI security agency—and al-Qaeda. Lucy Komisar indicates that BCCI’s successor institutions may still be involved in funneling money to Islamist terrorist groups. Do you think such offshore banks are still getting favorable treatment?
11. Kathleen Kern describes in Chapter 5 the grisly reality of murder, rape and torture amid the civil strife that has consumed Congo over the past ten years. What role have Western multinationals played in this war? How responsible do you think they are for what is happening? |
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12. Nigerian militants over the past year have carried out a series of kidnappings of foreign security personnel and oil workers, much like the seizure of Nigel Watson-Clark described by Andrew Rowell and James Marriott in Chapter 6. Why are so many oil-rich states like Nigeria plagued by instability? Do you think the United States will be drawn into the conflict over oil in Nigeria?
13. In Chapter 7, Greg Muttitt outlines the struggle to control Iraq’s economy in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of 2003. How important as a U.S. war aim was control of Iraq’s oil? Do you think that the sort of “shock” privatization strategy advocated by Dan Witt and used in the former Soviet countries can work in Iraq?
14. Steve Berkman brings the experience of a field investigator to his account in Chapter 8 of corruption in the World Bank’s operations. Is such corruption simply typical of the ways things are done is some countries? Should it be tolerated as part of the price of progress?
15. The Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos was a test case for the IMF/World Bank strategy of export-oriented development. Why does Doug Henwood believe that only a small number of countries can succeed by using this strategy?
16. In Chapter 9 Ellen Augustine describes the effects of IMF/World Bank structural adjustment programs on the Philippine economy. How have these programs affected Filipinos? How does the failure of these programs affect Americans? Are people in the U.S. caught in the same “race to the bottom”?
17. Export credit agencies pursue one goal: increasing their country’s exports. As Bruce Rich shows in Chapter 10, during the postwar era they have become some of the biggest players in international trade. Their record includes finance of the arms trade, massive corruption, and environmentally destructive projects. As citizens, should we ignore these practices in order to enjoy the jobs and profits that ECA-subsidized exports bring?
18. Pursuit of debt-led development, as described in Chapter 9 on the Philippines, has pushed developing countries’ foreign debt to $3.2 trillion. In response, G8 leaders have pledged to provide $40 billion debt relief. In Chapter 11, James S. Henry reviews a parade of debt relief programs. Why have these programs resulted in so little debt relief? Should First World countries and institutions simply write off what Henry calls “dubious debt”—loans wasted or stolen by nondemocratic governments?
19. The global justice movement has sometimes been called a “movement of movements.” In Chapter 12 Antonia Juhasz gives us an account of its history and achievements and outlines the agendas of popular movements against corporate globalization. What kinds of democratic alternatives do you find the most attractive? What actions can you take in your own life, and in your own community, to help build those alternatives to an EHM-dominated world? |
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