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In the 1960s and 1970s, NSA was not internationally known, but today, because of the leaks of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, NSA’s stealthy activities comprising surveillance and espionage have been exposed. Yet, ten years before Snowden, John Perkins had already made a significant exposé, which remained largely unnoticed, because apparently no one was willing to believe that the mysterious NSA was a malignant octopus.

Actually, people have been writing exposes of the NSA since the Watergate era. They were investigated by the Rockefeller Commission and the Pike and Church Committees, for instance. I wouldn't put much stock in anything Perkins says that can't be substantiated by reliable sources.

>>Economist John Perkins said, “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.<<

Bill and Hillary, for example?

Thanks for posting. Interesting.

“We’re paid—well paid—to cheat countries around the globe out of billions of dollars.”

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/a

EHM of the republic…

https://www.congress.gov/members

http://www.usdebtclock.org

Socialism Is Legal Plunder - Bastiat

Perkins' book is long on rhetoric, histrionics, and conspiracy theories but short on evidence and coherent reasoning. Where the facts can be checked, critics have demonstrated that Perkins is often wrong on key points and that his history is unreliable and expressive of left-wing views.

For example, Perkins' account of the overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran is the standard left-wing account, which is based on an acceptance of propaganda crafted by the KGB during the Cold War and used by Khomeini to help overthrow the Shah. In truth, the erratic and kooky Mossadegh was overthrown by a populist revolt, with the CIA and British intelligence having a marginal role that mostly aimed at securing that the successor regime would be pro-Western and anti-Communist.

American and British actions do not at all seem objectionable during the Cold War, and the era of the Shah is now recalled fondly by most Iranians as a time of peace and prosperity. And considering the menacing chaos in Libya today, one cannot but rue that the US seems to have lost the capacity to assure that, when a lout of a foreign leader is overthrown with our participation, a better regime is then installed in the aftermath.

Based on several hours of skimming through Perkins' book, my guess is that in retirement, Perkins started to write a novel but could not quite pull it off. He then recast and sold his book as a memoir, gauging, correctly, that it might catch fire with the left-wing crowd as a critique of American economic and foreign policy.

The Brazilian military rule in the 1980s was plagued by inflation,

I can't speak about economic hit men. However, in 1983 I was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Technological Research, on the campus of University of Sao Paolo. The inflation rate was terrible. However, the Brazilian government required banks to protect deposits against inflation, increasing them to keep the purchasing power of the money constant. The Institute put my salary in the bank when I arrived, and drew it out to be converted into dollars when I left. That way I didn't lose anything to their runaway inflation.