Post: #1

Has anyone read it?

I haven't as yet but know the gist (overseas conflicts are deliberately started so that western corporations can roll in to rebuild infrastructure at enormous profit).

There's an article in today's Guardian re. overseas conflicts and Tony Blair's involvement. This links closely to the premise of the book.

Would be interested to know your thoughts.

The link for the article is below. It's worth reading the comments below the text as there's always intelligent discussion to be found (and often more truth than the article itself).

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree...tervention

Post: #2

Tony Blair is a wanker. The words that come to mind are corrupt sanctimony. Not surprised that he's backing Sisi, who is shaping up to be much worse than Morsi would have ever been. For one thing, his people are even dusting off the old Nasserite anti-American, anti-western rhetoric to rile up the masses. I've been watching some of the Egyptian channels.

Post: #3

(02-01-2014 04:19 AM)Scuba_Instructor Wrote:  I haven't as yet but know the gist (overseas conflicts are deliberately started so that western corporations can roll in to rebuild infrastructure at enormous profit).

That is not quite correct. Military conflict is the last resort. The whole idea is to enslave developing countries via debt. Wikipedia says it better:

Quote:According to his book, Perkins' function was to convince the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the World Bank and USAID. Saddled with debts they could not hope to pay, those countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the United States on a variety of issues. Perkins argues in his book that developing nations were effectively neutralized politically, had their wealth gaps driven wider and economies crippled in the long run.

Essentially, the book is on neo-colonialism. Instead of conventional warfare, the new empires are built via economic warfare. This is cheaper, since you hijack a country's security forces to protect your assets in said country, instead of hiring mercenaries or deploying your own country's military.

Post: #4

(02-01-2014 08:21 AM)Icarus Wrote:  

(02-01-2014 04:19 AM)Scuba_Instructor Wrote:  I haven't as yet but know the gist (overseas conflicts are deliberately started so that western corporations can roll in to rebuild infrastructure at enormous profit).

That is not quite correct. Military conflict is the last resort. The whole idea is to enslave developing countries via debt. Wikipedia says it better:

Quote:According to his book, Perkins' function was to convince the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the World Bank and USAID. Saddled with debts they could not hope to pay, those countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the United States on a variety of issues. Perkins argues in his book that developing nations were effectively neutralized politically, had their wealth gaps driven wider and economies crippled in the long run.

Essentially, the book is on neo-colonialism. Instead of conventional warfare, the new empires are built via economic warfare. This is cheaper, since you hijack a country's security forces to protect your assets in said country, instead of hiring mercenaries or deploying your own country's military.

Thanks for the correction. It sounds like a very interesting book. Adding it to my reading list as we speak

Post: #5

I read it during college. Great book, but it's follow up "A Game As Old As Empire" is much better. In confessions, Perkins makes the claim that he's worked for years providing assistance to countries that are looking to complete development projects as a way of keeping them reliant on more advanced countries (the US). In Empire, he rounds up a number of other people who have worked in a similar capacity and gets them to tell their stories. Whereas the first book seemed almost too fanciful to be real, Empire gets much more specific about the shadiness of large scale development efforts.

Post: #6

The whole getting countries into perpetual debt and/or facilitating wars is covered in depth in "the creature from Jekyll island". I'm on mobile and don't have the book with me or I'd throw some quotes down or important points.

Post: #7

(02-01-2014 09:28 AM)Osiris Wrote:  I read it during college. Great book, but it's follow up "A Game As Old As Empire" is much better. In confessions, Perkins makes the claim that he's worked for years providing assistance to countries that are looking to complete development projects as a way of keeping them reliant on more advanced countries (the US). In Empire, he rounds up a number of other people who have worked in a similar capacity and gets them to tell their stories. Whereas the first book seemed almost too fanciful to be real, Empire gets much more specific about the shadiness of large scale development efforts.

Will check it out. Thanks.

Post: #8

(02-01-2014 10:13 AM)Doctor Wrote:  The whole getting countries into perpetual debt and/or facilitating wars is covered in depth in "the creature from Jekyll island". I'm on mobile and don't have the book with me or I'd throw some quotes down or important points.

Would be interesting to hear some important points from the book if you've got the time. Cheers.

Post: #9

There are guys on here who could probably rattle off the info off the top of their head. Not me. If nobody covers it I'll put some info from the book up in a day or two.

Post: #10

The basic concept is this: Wealthy nations actively work to perpetuate a system of dependency with poorer nations - the poor nations are trapped in a never ending cycle.

Wealthy nations achieve this by a number of means: trade, development efforts, media control, education, culture, etc... Poor nations come to rely on the resources of wealthy nations in terms of building infrastructure, higher education, advanced technology, entertainment, so on and so forth.

Wealthy nations purposefully sabotage the development of poorer nations to continue a supply of cheap labor, manufacturing, luxury items, and everything else needed to continue their high standard of living. Poor countries that challenge this system find themselves with new leaders in short order, or they find themselves invaded, subject to sanctions, or ostracized in some other way.

Take Guatemala for example. A couple years ago a Canadian company named Goldcorp arranged a mining deal with the Guatemalan government. Goldcorp got a $350 million dollar loan from the World Bank to build their mine. In exchange, Guatemala would get quality roads (ever an issue if you've never been there), the locals near the mine would get access to a Goldcorp financed clinic, and locals would be employed at the mine. The only problem is, none of it is sustainable, the clinic will close its doors the day the mine closes as the only doctor there is working for the company, the roads were only built to bring in/out heavy equipment and ore, and the locals who get employment aren't only temporary. A wealthy nation is able to sucker a poorer nation into giving away its wealth and getting little in return under the guise of development.

Post: #11

The Chinese are doing similar in Africa. Miles of new roads and suchlike built by the Chinese in return for access to the huge wealth of resources over there, which the Chinese need in order to feed their gigantic population and to keep manufacturing things for the Western world.

Post: #12

(02-01-2014 10:19 AM)Scuba_Instructor Wrote:  

(02-01-2014 10:13 AM)Doctor Wrote:  The whole getting countries into perpetual debt and/or facilitating wars is covered in depth in "the creature from Jekyll island". I'm on mobile and don't have the book with me or I'd throw some quotes down or important points.

Would be interesting to hear some important points from the book if you've got the time. Cheers.

One important component was bribing officials at the top to sell out their country's people and future, so the resource extraction was done "legally" in "collaboration" with the country.

. Some of them said fuck off to this guy as he sold his mining project "help". They said, "Thanks, we'll develop our own resources."

The honorable leaders soon died in mysterious plane crashes. That's when this author realized the slime he was working for.

There are specific names and deaths listed in the book, people whom this guy talked to before they were murdered. I don't remember the names.

Post: #13

I read the book circa 2006 and really liked the book. I am originally from one of the countries where US has the top leadership on the country on payroll and Mr. perkins story resonated well with me.

+ 1 for the book, I recommend it to the RVF brothers.

Post: #14

I've not only read the book, but I've met the guy a few times. We've taken some pictures together even. He was good friends with the Director of a company I used to work for when I lived in SF. Perkins comes down to SF a lot - he lives in the Seattle area - because he uses a law firm there to protect him from the many lawsuits against him that sprang up as a result of the book.

He's a big time liberal. And there's certain things about his background that are fishy. For one, he never finished his undergraduate studies yet he got into business school and received his MBA. Though I have heard of (rare) situations like this before. I don't know whether to believe a lot of what he says, but he is a very knowledgeable guy. He once said to me that Africa was the richest continent from a resource-based perspective, and that tells you all you need to know about why it's so unstable in many places there.

One time he invited me to some fundraiser for the Pachamama Alliance. Some organization for this indigenous group in the Ecuadorian Amazon (Perkins was in the Peace Corps in Ecuador for three years and speaks several indigenous languages and is a practicing shaman). He visits Ecuador six or seven times a year.

The fundraiser was in this huge warehouse building near Fort Mason Park right on the Bay.

Man, I never saw so many wealthy people in my life. I sat at some table and they were serving salmon, quinoa, some fancy shit and there were envelopes with donation cards. The minimum donation amount was like 5K. I saw people writing big checks. But there was also this option to where you could pay later so I checked that off and put down fake contact information.

Post: #15

(02-01-2014 01:13 PM)iknowexactly Wrote:  

(02-01-2014 10:19 AM)Scuba_Instructor Wrote:  

(02-01-2014 10:13 AM)Doctor Wrote:  The whole getting countries into perpetual debt and/or facilitating wars is covered in depth in "the creature from Jekyll island". I'm on mobile and don't have the book with me or I'd throw some quotes down or important points.

Would be interesting to hear some important points from the book if you've got the time. Cheers.

One important component was bribing officials at the top to sell out their country's people and future, so the resource extraction was done "legally" in "collaboration" with the country.

. Some of them said fuck off to this guy as he sold his mining project "help". They said, "Thanks, we'll develop our own resources."

The honorable leaders soon died in mysterious plane crashes. That's when this author realized the slime he was working for.

There are specific names and deaths listed in the book, people whom this guy talked to before they were murdered. I don't remember the names.

Here are a few that were assassinated (allegedly).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Torrijos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Roldós_Aguilera

Post: #16

I read this book a number of years ago, but it was one of the "gamechangers" for me.

While the author goes off the rails a little bit with praising Bill Clinton and the Democrats as some sort of great hope for reforming the system (it was published in the early 90's IIRC), this book opened my eyes to the reality of the huge scam known as FOREIGN AID.

Like most Americans brainwashed by the Tell-A-Vision, anytime the news reported American "giving foreign aid" to other countries, I felt patriotic pride that I was a part of the greatest country in the world and that we were the most generous with our wealth to the less fortunate countries in the world.

That's what we're led to believe foreign aid is all about.

It's all shit.

Foreign aid is a pay off to the giant multi-national corporations. The Government gives contracts to the corporations to supply the recipient country with arms, supplies, food, infrastructure projects, etc.

When you see news reports saying the US gave "2 billion dollars in foreign aid" to Israel or Mexico, or any other country, we're not giving the recipient country money so that they can buy food or fix things for their people...we're really buying things from the multi-national corporations to give to these countries ( in most cases, the big ticket items are all from the military industrial complex like jets, tanks, guns, ammo, etc.). Except when we have a country that runs in the red, "we" are "borrowing" money from the Federal Reserve system (at usurious interest rates) to give it to the corporations to supply their products and services to the foreign aid recipients.

After reading this book, I finally understood precisely what "Foreign Aid" means, and it also explains pretty damn nicely why we live in a country that is broke, rising unemployment, operating so deep in the red and in ever escalating debt...and yet we still "give billions in foreign aid" every year.

Post: #17

The corporations who get all this "foreign aid" government contracts, are the same ones paying all the lobbyists and "donating" all the campaign contributions to the politicians (of all political parties) who continue to rubber stamp the foreign aid corporate extortion racketeering operation.

Post: #18

You guys know foreign aid accounts for less than 1% of the US federal budget, right?

Post: #19

Of course. The foreign aid scam is only a small percentage of the total scams being run by the Government. But it's still nothing to sneeze it. The latest figures on US Aid (both military and economic) are close to 50 billion "given" in 2011.

Given our current total debt is in Trillions, yeah, it's a small percentage of the overall problem.

But it's still a problem.

Post: #20

Here is his "Rothschild Formula" regarding creating war.
1. War is the ultimate discipline to any government. If it can successfully meet the challenge of war, it will survive. If it cannot, it will perish. All else is secondary. The sanctity of its laws, the prosperity of its citizens, and the solvency of its treasury will be quickly sacrificed by any government in its primal act of self-survival.

2. All that is necessary, therefore, to insure that government will maintain or expand its debt is to involve it in war or the threat of war. The greater the threat and the more destructive the war, the greater the need for debt.

3. To involve a country in war or the threat of war, it will be necessary for it to have enemies with credible military might. If such enemies already exist, all the better. If they exist but lack military strength, it will be necessary to provide them the money to build their war machine. If an enemy does not exist at all, then it will be necessary to create one by financing the rise of a hostile regime.

4. The ultimate obstacle is a government which declines to finance its wars through debt. Although this seldom happens, when it does, it will be necessary to encourage internal political opposition, insurrection, or revolution to replace that government with one that is more compliant to our will. The assassination of heads of state could play an important role in this process.

The division of the United States into federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War by the high financial powers of Europe. These bankers were afraid that the United States, if they remained as one block, would attain economic and financial independence, which would upset their financial domination over the world. – Otto von Bismark

If this mischievous financial policy, which had its origins in North America, should become indurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and be without debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous without precedent in the history of the world. That country must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe. –Times of London

5. No nation can be allowed to remain militarily stronger than its adversaries, for that could lead to peace and a reduction of debt. To accomplish this balance of power, it may be necessary to finance both side of the conflict. Unless one of the combatants is hostile to our interests and, therefore, must be destroyed, neither side should be allowed a decisive victory or defeat. While we must always proclaim the virtues of peace, the unspoken objective is perpetual war. (The Creature from Jekyll Island, 1994. G. Edward Griffin, pg. 230)



The term he uses for facilitating loans and devaluation of currency is the Mandrake mechanism. I think this is right out of the book.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/888963/posts


There is a section of the book, that I can't find in the short time I've been looking, where he gives and example, that I haven't researched to give credibility and I'll probably butcher it without having specific info, of an African country that was prospering economically until it began to take ludicrous international loans (loans that are basically money created out of nothing and thus doesn't really matter if a country defaults) after which a short time they become unable to pay necessitating more loans merely to pay the interest on the original loan leading to inflation and economic catastrophe.


I think the book is fantastic and definitely a recommended read. However, and I say this without being any sort of expert on anything economy related, I got the gist that some of it borders on conspiracy theory. Some stuff sounds plausible, but I did question a few things here and there as to whether or not some liberties and extrapolations were taken.

Post: #21

(02-01-2014 06:16 PM)Osiris Wrote:  You guys know foreign aid accounts for less than 1% of the US federal budget, right?

Yeah, according to "official government statistics" which are always 100% accurate and truthful.

Actually the latest "official statistic" is that foreign aid is about 1.4% of the current federal budget.

However, this represents billions (if not trillions) of wasted taxpayer dollars over the years and it also leads to more expenditures via wars, corporate subsidies, etc.