To link to this article from your blog or webpage, copy and paste the url below into your blog or homepage.
A Game As Old As Empire: The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption
a book by Steven Hiatt
(our site's book review)
A Game as Old as Empire is a collection of essays by investigative journalists, economic hit men (EMH)s, academics, practicing lawyers, scientists and writers exposing the extent of corruption in the exploitation of developing countries; for example lending billions of dollars, raising debt, knowing full well that particular regimes were pocketing the cash, opening off shore accounts, while the regime's country falls further into abject poverty, then to lend more money, raising debt further. These essays are terribly disturbing as the greed, destruction and waste is so vast, crippling small countries, causing poverty to become more entrenched to fill the pockets of a Global elitist few and their cronies. Are the shadow government's EHMs and jackals willing to go to any lengths in the service of greed? Yes, including fomenting rebellions, overthrowing governments, engineering coups, framing, murder, extortion, thievery, bribery, assassination, exploitation, pollution, environmental destruction, and even terrorism.
Jackal—the shadow government's assassin, rebellion starter, thief, and dirty tricks thug
Shadow government Jackals bumped off Presidents Omar Torrijos of Panama; Jaime Roldós of Ecuador in 1981; Patrice Lumumba of the Congo in 1960; Eduardo Mondlane of Mozambique in 1969; Amilcar Cabral of Guinea-Bissau in 1973; Oscar Romero, archbishop of San Salvador, in 1980; Benigno Aquino of the Philippines in 1983; and Mehdi Ben Barka of Algeria in 1965.
Mausoleum of assassinated President Omar Torrijos of Panama: Victim of a U.S. shadow government jackal—apparently he wouldn't buckle to U.S. threats to sell out his country or else
A Game as Old as Empire is the confirmation of John Perkins' account of greed, corruption, and exploitation in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and Perkins' The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption and Perkins' Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the Global Economy IMPLODED -- and How to Fix It. Every major incident described in Perkins' books have been discussed in detail by other authors—usually lots of other authors. These and the other events in Perkins' books are a matter of verified public record. Example: Joseph Stiglitz, in his book Globalization and Its Discontents, described the International Monetary Fund (IMF) habit of fudging numbers to make deals.
The book states that "Globalization, as it has been advocated, often seems to replace the old dictatorships of national elites with new dictatorships of international finance…. For millions of people globalization has not worked…. They have seen their jobs destroyed and their lives become more insecure."
The book has many revelations of capitalist corruption and warlord dominance that are contemporary and all too relevant in exposing how the world actually works. The fact that the book implicates the highest echelons of government and corporations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organization (WTO), World Bank, U.S.A., Britain and the "G8" countries deeply involved in money laundering, tax evasion and environmental disasters that turns one's stomach, never mentioned in the main stream media, reveals the appalling extent of this corruption.
Perkins writes: "A quarter century ago [1970s and 1980s], I saw myself as a hit man [Confessions of an Economic Hit Man] for the interests of U.S. capitalism in the struggle for control of the developing world during the Cold War. Today (2007), the EHM game is more complex, its corruption is more pervasive, and its operations more fundamental to the world economy and politics. There are many more types of economic hit men, and the roles they play are far more diverse."
Robert O. Leaveron confirms the book's revelations: "As an ex-international banker who quit banking for the same reasons John Perkins quit being an Economic Hit Man, I can vouch for the truth of every essay in this fine book. The underlying truth is: the world is increasingly run by the corporatocracy, and it has negligible concern for either the poor countries it purports to help nor the environment in which it functions. The truth is the opposite of what we would like and pretend to be true. And the corporatocracy doesn't just behave as it does in foreign, underdeveloped countries, it behaves the exact same way here at home." So if you thought that—
- our huge national debt
- the shaky economy
- the rotten jobs picture where even college grads are jobless
- the middle class disappearing and their money ending up in the pockets of the oligarchs
- the corruption on Wall Street
- the Supreme Court selling out the citizens and rubber-stamping corporations' buying of elections
- the world situation going deeper into the crapper by the minute
- the ridiculous clown show our elections have degenerated into
- endless wars started by the world's most hated Empire builder—us
- U.S. servicemen used as expendable cannon fodder in our oligarchs' Empire builder wars
- and the hopelessness of voting as a method of changing any of these things
Neocons do not care what happens to our young or to Mideast citizens—they care about their own power and wealth, and see citizens as mere cannon fodder—a means to an end
- Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World
- When Corporations Rule the World
- The Rise of the American Corporate Security State
- The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption
- Losing Our Way: An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America
- The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It
- The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government
- National Security and Double Government
- A Game As Old As Empire: The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption
- Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the Global Economy IMPLODED -- and How to Fix It
Various authors see the shadow government from various perspectives—like the blind men and the elephant, but the overall gist is creepily similar
Done properly, economic development and stewardship offers the possibility of true societal progress, ennobling humanity, enriching lives, nurturing the environment and increasing business activity and profits. This book serves an important purpose in that it shows that all is not sunshine and roses in the global economy. The offered possibility of true societal progress is rejected in favor of following the crude and merciless lust for money. Greed runs the show in globalization.
Steven K. Szmutko says: "Unfortunately, the reality is far different from the ideal. The shortsightedness and greed of political and leaders - focused only on personal enrichment or the next quarter's operating results - leads to a culture of global exploitation. The pattern is familiar: special interests descend like locusts, consume everything in their path, and then move on, leaving a wake of destruction, degradation, and despair."
The U.S. military bullies dropping a little 'democracy' on Middle Eastern citizens
The Bush Doctrine (Dubya used this as his plan for the unprovoked, illegal attack on Iraq in 2003) is this: "the strategic plan emphasizes three points: the primacy of U.S. power within the New World Order; the right of the U.S. to engage unilaterally in preemptive attacks when necessary to defend its interests; and, in the Middle East, the overall objective is to remain the predominant outside power in the region and preserve U.S. and Western access to the region’s oil." This is a plan of empire—the Bush Doctrine calls for war without end to preserve the empire’s web of control. Nothing legal or ethical was involved or even pretended—it was just the shadow government's lust for raw power, control, wealth and oil. The U.S. defense budget is greater than the defense budgets of the rest of the countries of the world combined.
Cheney, Dubya, and Obama have been playing musical chairs with a king's throne—we wonder which one of these men who would be king actually won?
Before 1776, the Colonies in America were part of the British Empire, but they decided that being subjects of King George III (George William Frederick) was not all that smart. They figured that creating a democracy and ceasing to bow to George's greed (taxes on the Colonies, etc.) was smarter, if a bit dangerous and reckless. It only worked because there was an ocean between America and Britain. These brave upstarts decided to seize the day. And seize they did. All they had to do was reject George's oppression and aim for freedom, rights, fairness, justice, and self-determination.
Cheney singing 'I want the whole world . . . I want it NOW!'
Ironically, on January 20, 2001, the Bush Doctrine recklessly put us U.S. "colonists" under the unwilling control of another King George who—even greedier than the first one—wanted not just American colonies but the rest of the world as well. They even admitted that—like the first George—they wanted Empire, and no amount of power would suffice until they had it all: All the wealth, all the power, all the land, etc. It reminds one of the adorable, but spoiled, brat in the first Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory movie who sang "I want the whole world . . . I want it NOW!" Was Bush having a "brat attack" during his 2003 Iraq invasion, precipitated by the drooling greed of accomplice-mastermind Dick Cheney?
"'I want the whole world . . . I want it NOW!' (It's MUCH cuter when this little girl is singing it!)"
And next we have Obama the Betrayer, greedily following in the greedy footsteps of Dubya the Destroyer. What the hell is WRONG with these losers????!!!! None of them have the slightest idea what the word democracy means! We needed this Obama ass clown to reject the ugly shadow government direction that King George and Dangerous Dick were moving the U.S. But he instead did the near-impossible: he made it worse! Next will come Hillary the Heartless (or Clinton the Cruel) or maybe Trump the Terrible or Donald the Demagogue. Why are humans so suicidally unwilling to learn from history? (The Roman Empire comes to mind—that didn't end well.) The only good aspect of this empire crap is that if we own everything, we will no longer have a 19 trillion dollar debt, because who would we pay back—ourselves?!
national debt
The doomsday clock is currently set at 3 minutes to midnight
Unless American citizens start defecating money, the debt has put us all in deep doo-doo
Our shadow government keeps idiotically pushing us toward a situation much like the Roman Empire—that didn't end well either
Doug Henwood, author of After the New Economy: The Binge . . . And the Hangover That Won’t Go Away, says that "The United States would right now be a prime candidate for structural adjustment if this were an ordinary country. We are living way beyond our means, we have massive and constantly growing foreign debts, a gigantic currency account deficit, and a government that shows no interest in doing anything about it. . . . If this were an ordinary country, the United States would have the IMF at our doorstep telling us to create a recession, get the foreign accounts back into balance, consume less, invest more, and save more. But since the United States is the United States, we don’t have such a thing happening."
The overall, long-term African policy was designed to access and plunder Africa's wealth at the expense of its people—especially diamonds, oil, minerals and natural gas
Africa
Kathleen Kern, in “The Human Cost of Cheap Cell Phones,” describes how ethnic division in eastern Congo and Rwanda has been exploited by Western multinationals to ensure their access to coltan ore and other resources, at the cost of 4 million lives. Of course, we need coltan ore to make transistors and cell phones, so shadow government forces ensured that we'd get our hands on that ore—what's a few million African lives more or less?
Shadow government forces ensured that we'd get our hands on the ore needed for making cell phones—what's a few million African lives more or less?
The book dramatically underscores the fact that if we don't act, and act now, we will be facing a world of new "serfdom", which we've previously mentioned at the end of National Security and Double Government when we predicted the world degenerating into a revised, modernized Feudalism. This would include serfs, of course. (Here's an essay on one of our corporatocracy's greediest and most famous members. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Google, Privacy, and Anonymity.)
We predicted the world degenerating into a revised, modernized Feudalism—this would include serfs, of course
Berrett-Koehler (the brave publishers) and the authors of A Game As Old As Empire are involving thousands of people in a massive grass-roots campaign to spread awareness of this new book and its messages. Now that's what we like to hear: involvement, commitment and action!