Empire: A Global Web of Corruption
A new book, A Game As Old As Empire: The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption, shines a spotlight on the subversion of countries around the globe by economic manipulations. The book by, edited by Steven Hiatt, but with contributions of a dozen other authors, continues where John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man left off.
A Game As Old As Empire uncovers the inner workings of the institutions behind these economic manipulations. The contributors detail concrete examples of how the “economic hit man game” is still being played: an officer of an offshore bank hiding hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen money, IMF advisers slashing Ghana’s education and health programs, a mercenary defending a European oil company in Nigeria, a consultant rewriting Iraqi oil law, and executives financing warlords to secure supplies of coltan ore in Congo.John Perkins, author of the original "confessions", says in the book's introduction:
“If my Confessions could send such a strong message to the public, it made sense that multiple confessions—or the stories about people who need to confess—might reach even more people …The intrepid contributors to this book uncover events that have taken place across a wide range of countries, all Economic-Hit-Mens' game plans under a variety of guises. Each sheds more light on the building of an empire that is contrary to American principles of democracy and equality.”With currency trading alone totaling $3 trillion a day, we don't have to wonder were people find funds to pressure the weaker economies to do the bidding of those behind the "Hit Men".
John Christensen, one of the contributors to the book and director of the Tax Justice Network, links the existence of tax havens that encourage and enable capital flight and tax evasion, to providing the means for this widespread economic subversion of developing countries.
- - -
How tax havens fit into the global web of corruption
In January 1998 I quit my job as economic adviser to the States of Jersey and shortly afterwards left the island. I grew up in Jersey and devoted half my working career to the island, so my resignation was not an easy choice, but I was (and always had been) totally opposed to Jersey's use as a tax haven, and as the island's other industries were crowded out by the banks and legal firms, it had become increasingly clear to me that I was fighting a losing battle to protect the island from takeover.
Now, almost a decade later, I have contributed a chapter about my experiences to A Game As Old As Empire, the first follow-on book to the New York Times bestseller Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, which is released this month.
In Confessions, John Perkins exposed for the first time the secret world of economic hit men (EHMs). But Confessions contained only a small piece of this sinister puzzle. The full story is far bigger, deeper, and darker than Perkins' personal account revealed. Now, in A Game As Old As Empire: The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption, I've joined Perkins and several other EHMs, journalists, and investigators to tell my own story about how tax havens fit into the global web of corruption.
My fellow contributors and I shine a spotlight on the subversion of specific countries around the globe, expose the inner workings of the institutions behind these economic manipulations, and connect the dots to show how the various pieces of this system come together to create the world's first truly global empire. In the book, we detail concrete examples of how the "economic hit man game" is still being played: an officer of an offshore bank hiding hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen money, IMF advisers slashing Ghana's education and health programs, a mercenary defending a European oil company in Nigeria, a consultant rewriting Iraqi oil law, and executives financing warlords to secure supplies of coltan ore in Congo. We show how this system of corruption and plunder operates in real life, and reveal the price that the rest of the world must pay as a result.
To learn more about the book, here is a pdf with contents, introduction and some more information.
http://www.bkconnection.com/static/agaoesampler.pdf
By way of added incentive to buy the book, I have agreed with the TJN Board that any royalties I receive from the sales of A Game As Old As Empire will be contributed (in their entirety) towards the funding of the TJN International Secretariat, so you will be helping us to continue with our work to tackle the corruption interface.+++++++
John Christensen Director
Tax Justice Network International Secretariat
email christensen.tjn@neweconomics.org
website www.taxjustice.net/
See also:Introducing A Game As Old As Empire
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Friday March 16 2007
updated on Monday April 12 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2007/03/16/empire_a_global_web_of_corruption.htm
Related ArticlesDeficits, Free Trade and Privatization - How to Finance Empire
The aggressive designs for global control of the current US government are supported through a hidden financial supply line from economic players the world over, through their respective countries' Central Banks, right into the US Treasury. This is, in essence, what Michael Hudson, Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri and author of Super Imperialism: The Origin and Fundamentals of U.S. World Dominance - explains in a highly... [read more]
November 19, 2003 - Sepp HasslbergerWorld Bank Chief: It's Time to Restore Balance
In our world of 6 billion people, one billion own 80 percent of global GDP, while another billion struggle to survive on less than a dollar a day. This is a world out of balance. When James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, addressed the Board of Governors of the Bank at a meeting in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on September 23, he concluded his talk with an appeal to... [read more]
December 17, 2003 - Sepp HasslbergerArgentina Defies Monetary Fund - Gives Economic Lesson to Big Finance
Three years after the collapse of Argentina's economy under IMF and World Bank recipes for development, the South American country's budding recovery is stunning international observers. Defying the IMF's prescriptions, president Kirchner and his economic advisers have told creditors to get in line and wait, while building the economy from the bottom up. An excellent article in the New York Times relates the story. The looting of Argentina by international... [read more]
December 30, 2004 - Sepp HasslbergerAn Economy Of The Commons - Economic Law, Ethics, and Paradox: Is There a Way Out?
The concept of a "commons" as a piece of land or other resource open to use by several members of a community, although not owned by any one of the users in particular, comes to us from English history. Could money be considered as part of the commons? Wikepedia, an expression of what we might call the "information commons" says in this article it could: Commons are a subset of... [read more]
April 30, 2005 - Sepp HasslbergerUsury Free Currencies - Hour time is NOW!
Most people I know complain about lack of money and high taxes, high prices, inflation and their personal difficulties in making ends meet. It's almost like a sport, like the football games that come our way with unnerving regularity. There is hardly a family that can survive on the paycheck of one person alone, so mothers often "park" their kids at school and pre-school services to make some of that... [read more]
January 26, 2004 - Sepp Hasslberger
