David Skarbek, a senior over at the Austrian-friendly SJSU econ department has a review of John Perkins’ latest feather rustling book: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
It makes for some light Sunday reading. See also: 1 2 3
Source link: http://blog.mises.org/4785/book-review-confessions-of-an-economic-hit-man/
Book Review: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
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… a true account of his life as an Economic Hit Man (EHM) — an economist who convinces developing countries to accept loans in order to finance infrastructure and promote growth. …”The foreign aid game was a sham”, writes Perkins, “It existed to make [foreign leaders] rich and to shackle his country with debt” … he and his colleagues could and would manipulate variables to achieve the predicted and exorbitant growth rates they desired. He sees it as a “tool that scientifically ‘proved’ we were doing countries a favor by helping them incur debts they could never be able to pay off”.
Now re-read the book review, only this time delete the words “developing”, “third world” and “foreign”. Is there really any difference between the way we in the developed world are treated by our own leaders? The EHM’s have been very, very active in all of our countries.
Henry, in America we call them “credit card” and “mortgage” salesmen.
If Perkins will cheat at his econ models, what makes anyone think he won’t lie in a book? After all, lying in non-fiction writing is rage today. How can you trust anything he writes?
I’ll use this chance to defend econometrics again: Perkins lied, not the econometrics techniques he used. You should not condemn econometrics for Perkins’s lack of honesty any more than you should condemn the technique of writing because some use it to deceive others. Anyone who loans money, even small banks, will want a 4cast of growth in order to help determine if the borrower can repay the loan. The 4caster can either tag an arbitrary growth percentage onto the end of each year, the most common method of 4casting, or he can use econometric techniques, which are far more accurate if done properly and honestly.
Roger,
What Perkins wrote in his book doesn’t prove, nor could it disprove what praxeology happens to predict, although it certainly is consistent with what it predicts. There is not much that i’ve read in his accounts that is surprising.
What is striking, though, is his persevering faith in the machinery that he is so familiar with that has argued has done so much harm. He believes it can be reformed and used for good. Egads, talk about some people never learning; that’s tragic.
There’s a lot that’s wrong with foreign aid, as development economists like Peter Bauer point out.
I don’t now how is america afected of this hit man feature but i know that my country (Romania) is under the total control of this “economic Hit man” effect
The link doesn’t work–FAIL.
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