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Further:

According to Perkins, his job at the firm was to convince leaders of underdeveloped countries to accept substantial development loans for large construction and engineering projects. Ensuring that these projects were contracted to U.S. companies, such loans provided political influence for the US and access to natural resources for American companies,[1]: 15, 239  thus primarily helping local elites and wealthy families, rather than the poor.

The book heavily criticizes U.S. foreign policy and the notion that "all economic growth benefits humankind, and that the greater the growth, the more widespread the benefits."[1]: xii  Perkins suggests that, in many cases, only a small portion of the population benefits at the expense of the rest, pointing to, as an example, an increase in income inequality, whereby large U.S. corporations exploit cheap labor, and oil companies destroy local environments.[1]: xii 

Perkins describes what he calls a system of corporatocracy and greed as the driving forces behind establishing the United States as a global empire, in which he took a role as an "economic hit man" to expand its influence. In this capacity, Perkins recounts his meetings with some prominent individuals, including Graham Greene and Omar Torrijos. Perkins describes the role of an economic hit man as follows:

Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man

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One thing the immigration coverage overlooks (this dates from the 2016 election):

Ending US policies that cause the inflow, such as:

'Hillary has supported the deportations of immigrants, opposed the

refugees -- women and children coming from Honduras, whose refugee crisis

she was very much responsible for by giving a thumbs-up to this

corporate coup in Honduras that has created the violence from which

those refugees are fleeing. She basically said, "No, bar the gates, send

them back." You know, so we see these draconian things that Donald Trump

is talking about, we actually see Hillary Clinton doing.'

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/6/9/green_partys_jill_stein_what_we?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=f7dc7a4bb1-Daily_Digest&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-f7dc7a4bb1-191718257

--Mark M Giese

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