Work and Trade
After completing the online lecture and readings, I was reminded of a novel I read a few years ago – “Confessions of an Economic Hitman,” by John Perkins. While a factually controversial book it aims to expose the underlying motives of such organizations outlined by the “The ABC of Global Economy “ article. The book tells stories of John Perkin’s roles and experiences as an “economic hitman” within a consulting firm he worked for which was confidentially linked to institutions such as World Bank. By coming forth with his actions, he exposes the corruption within these organizations. Put simply, he was selected as an economist to present data, which would persuade political leaders and financial institutions of developing countries to take on loans from organizations such as World Bank in order to fund infrastructure projects. As mentioned in class, many of these projects resulted in only benefiting larger developed nations such as the United States and left these countries worse off. The novel exposes the negative results of such projects – increased inequality, poverty and downturns in economies. Within the book, Mr. Perkins attempts to stress the point that the projects actually direct money back to the United States and multinational corporations. Furthermore, the book also touches on the initiative of G8 to forgive the debt of many developing nations. It goes on to explain that this action is conditional on the privatization of many social services and maintenance of regulations that benefit MNC and large countries.
The behind the scenes actions of the United States, other large neoliberal countries, and institutions such as World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization have immeasurable consequences during this time of globalization. I believe the implications of these actions drastically change the perspective one takes when considering how to manage the economic growth of developing nations in the global economic arena. With leadership coming from these institutions, how will people of developed nations change in order to end this cycle?
“Confessions of an Economic Hitman” is an example of how even after a national bestseller exposes the motives, actions, and government relationships of many companies – nothing changes. I am the perfect example. I remembering reading the book and beginning to question these governments, my actions as a consumer (which progress the cycle), and future goals. After some time though, these ideas and convictions are forgotten and one slips back into old routines that have been conditioned to perpetuate the cycle of support for these organization and increase the inequality gap between nations. Maybe every purchase is indirectly supporting the economic hitmen.
The leadership of such institutions is making it difficult for positive change to occur. While one may argue that citizens are unaware of the underlying motives and connections of these governments, organizations with multinational corporations, this is untrue. Even after such information is exposed, no change occurs. When considering the labour (production factor) and trade (consumption factor) dependency it is clear that unless people in industrialized, developed nations make significant changes, newly industrialized or developing nations will continue to suffer. Free trade and the search for cheap labour is perpetuated by the need overconsumption of developing nations, therefore the social conditions that drive consumerism need to change. It is difficult to see how this will happen. We study these problems at school and are educated on them. In fact, three of the four modules I am enrolled in as a business student have touched on these issue of division of labour, inequalities and the role of institutions such as the IMF, World Bank and the WTO. Such education and exposure even to masses of university students seems hopeless in developing answers on how to control this problem. National bestsellers such as “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” provide insight but are perhaps only entertainment to most. Expose does not change the attitudes, values and goals of society today – especially in North America. The capitalist cycle, views of society and integration of government with multinationals is too strong.
