Confessions of an Economic Hitman

[Exarch]

am currently in the middle of reading it.
intriguing stuff.
basically, Perkins (the author) claims that there exist 'Economic Hitmen' (EHM) who

convince the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the World Bank and USAID. Saddled with huge debts they could not hope to pay, these countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the United States on a variety of issues

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_hitman

kinda like demanding cardinal votes in M2:TW, the USG can demand UN votes from such nations.

discuss

[Maverick]

Leverage makes the world go around. The third world is like the wild west, just about anything goes and the wealthy nations are in a position to take advantage of it very easily. The United Nations is all about control, just look at how hierarchical it is. I wrote an essay in school about how the US "encouraging" third world nations to produce corn for ethanol instead of subsistence farming would lead to higher food prices and famine and months later that story was all over the news. But that's what capitalism is all about, it doesn't have a conscience.

[Senno]

am currently in the middle of reading it.
intriguing stuff.
basically, Perkins (the author) claims that there exist 'Economic Hitmen' (EHM) who

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_hitman

kinda like demanding cardinal votes in M2:TW, the USG can demand UN votes from such nations.

discuss

Well, we have also forgiven some debts historically. I'm not sure it's a conspiracy going in. I'd like to read the book. Have to pick it up I suppose.

Forgave some Guatemalan debts also.

Google returns a lot of hits. I'd have to look at the specific loan versus what happened in the foreign country, and also see if the debt was forgiven. Lot's of work to sort that out.

Loans are made (hopefully) to give them some funding to provide basics for their citizens. There is waste fraud and abuse that takes place, it seems inherently. We need tighter controls on that to make sure money reaches targets. But I'm not ready to say it's a vast global c-word.

I will pick up the book if I can find it at the used stores I check out.

Specific to ethanol: I think we should remove the tariffs, both Brazil's and ours.