The Economic Hit Man is an engaging story which is presented as a factual autobiography, but many of Perkin's critics have noted that his book reads like a Grisham novel, and is probably just as fanciful. What is your gut feeling? Were any parts too unbelievable?
On the flip-side, we also see corporations like Halliburton and Blackwater are in trouble with war crimes, and satellites intended to reduce our CO2 levels are falling from the sky. Will this be the book that finally substantiates the conspiracy theorists?
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Ok, where is everyone!? I thought we'd have some lively discussion here, so I'll try to kick things off. I must say that I enjoyed the book because it read like a Grisham novel. But there were moments that I thought "really?" He recalled details and conversations that seemed unbelievable. But I think any book has to be embellished to flesh out the story. Sure, parts are probably exaggerated or made up, but I still feel like the gist of the plot was all based on actual events.
I agree, it seems like a bit of embellishment to make for better reading, but I don't think it was made up. I thought it was interesting that he repeatedly pointed out that this wasn't some sort of conspiracy that he was trying to reveal, but that this was where the "free market" had taken us. I don't know that I was able to follow that analysis all that clearly, but it definitely made me think a lot.
P.S. Sorry I haven't commented earlier. I finished the book a while ago and have just been lazy/busy. I will post for next month's book soon, but hopefully more people will comment on this one.
A lot of the ideas in this book were things that I studied in college, and were therefore not too surprising to me. However, some of the "characters" seemed a little far-fetched to me, especially Claudine. I also thought it seemed a little weird how he was constantly obsessing over his detrimental actions, yet carried on with what he was doing, and seemed to keep re-discovering that he was doing something wrong. Does that make sense? I hope the Grisham-ness of it all doesn't undermine his message to skeptical readers.
We were gone last weekend, sorry for not responding sooner. It seems like the reader-friendly nature of his book isn't stopping its impact.
If you want, there is a pretty good interview with John Perkins on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTbdnNgqfs8
I'll be honest, I've been waiting to post until I finished the book, but for whatever reason that does not seem to be happening that quickly, so I'm just going to post anyway.
I feel like I was kind of in the same boat as Blair. Though we may have talked about it in some of my classes a little differently, a lot of this was stuff I studied in college, so I didn't find most of the ideas very surprising, especially the idea of using debt and our incredibly powerful corporations to drain other countries of their wealth and resources. It is happening constantly and continues to happen right now.
A lot of it did feel a little surreal though--I think because he had such detailed conversations and Claudine did seem too exaggerated. I don't doubt that even the exaggerated stuff is based in reality though.
Mostly I felt like since he kept feeling guilty he should buck up and get out of what he was doing. I haven't finished yet, though, so maybe he explains why it took him so long.
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