 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | Robert Baer Reviews Hoodwinked
Robert Baer is the author of two New York Times bestsellers: Sleeping with the Devil, about the Saudi royal family and its relationship with the United States; and See No Evil, which recounts Baer’s years as a top CIA operative. See No Evil was the basis for the acclaimed film Syriana, which earned George Clooney an Oscar for his portrayal of Baer. Baer has contributed to Vanity Fair, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. He is considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Middle East. Read his guest review of Hoodwinked:
 I wasn’t twenty pages into Hoodwinked when I realized Perkins nailed it. What got us into the mess we’re in today, the worst recession since the Great Depression, is the same grotesque capitalism cum corruption we shoved down the throat of the Third World since the end of World War II. (Yes, the Third World’s elites were cheerfully corrupted.) We, and the rest of the West, learned the trick of selling unneeded infrastructure, services, over-sophisticated weapons--stuff that could never benefit anyone other than the people who lined their pockets. And yes, Perkins is right, the international economists and press were handmaidens to the thievery. It was all fairly routine until 9/11, when the real gorging started. Tell the people their roof is on fire and they’ll give you whatever you ask for. Between 2001 and 2009 the Department of Defense budget increased 74 percent, and that is not to mention the hundreds of billions of dollars in related contracts. Nigeria on the Potomac. Perkins is quick to state he doesn’t believe in a grand conspiracy theory. Few of the people who call the shots have ever met each other. They don’t have a playbook other than a couple of fraudulent economists like Milton Friedman and the others who worship at the altar of deregulation. No, what they have in common is an obsession with the winner takes all. Perkins's message isn’t going to be popular. We’re a country invested in a system in which five percent of the world’s population consumes 25 percent of the world’s resources. It's a system we’re trying to sell to the world, only we don’t mention that we’ll need five planets to sustain it. Perkins isn’t the pessimist I am. He says we can save the world if we green it--and, of course, start telling the truth to each other. Otherwise we end up a banana republic like the ones we know so well how to despoil. --Robert Baer
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Average Customer Rating:   Hoodwinked Former economic hit man, John Perkins, engages the reader with a firm voice and ample historic information as he sets up the reasoning for his beliefs and mission, to create a "sustainable, just and peaceful world." The book is divided into two parts, 1) an overview of the root causes of our current global economic and social circumstances and 2) an exploration of options for a course of action to transform this planet into one that his young grandson and others will want to inherit.
Part one explains how "corporatocracy" (freewheeling partnerships with no particular loyalty) have produced the toppling of democratic foreign governments and created "trinket capitalism." The loosening of the hold of government regulations over business practices, combined with media hype, bad banking, and bad financial practices, created the most damaging impacts on the global economy. Part two tracks the evolution of capitalism to its current permutation where finance, not production of needed goods is the primary focus in the USA today.
//Hoodwinked// is a well-developed book with smooth transitions between the chapters that contain clearly organized thoughts. There's a comfortable balance between a history lesson and a call to action. Perkins delivers a message of hopefulness and encouragement while suggesting alternatives to predatory capitalism.
Reviewed by Ruta Arellano He Doth Protest too Much John Perkins does not, he assures us, believe in conspiracy theory. What he does believe in are shadowy economists who work for corporations as hit men and are often seduced by beautiful women in green dresses before they go topple governments in concert with the CIA. Perkins was one of "many" such hit men, but he has reformed now and he wants to come clean by explaining how our perverted system of capitalism really works, why China's is better, and how Milton Friedman is to blame for it all.
Suffice to say, I am singularly unimpressed by all of this. Perkins sets up his argument by suggesting that the modern economic world is a result of a debate between Keynes and Friedman. The latter won, and this is why Iceland is on the verge of economic collapse, as are we. Having read both Keynes and Friedman, however, I did not recognize either of them in the description Perkins provided. What I saw was a mishmash of sources. On one page he cited an eighteen year old freshman student followed quickly by Paul Krugman (it's not clear which of those two is better informed) and shortly thereafter Perkins referred to an article which claimed airlines did not go bankrupt under regulation. The latter point is correct, incidentally. They also did not offer low fares, compete, or save fuel by flying full planes using a hub and spoke system. For a man who is concerned about global warming and the wasted resources of corporate capitalism, it is hard to see how this little detail escaped his notice. Or the detail that Whole Foods Market, which he praises, is founded by a libertarian inspired by, you guessed it, Milton Friedman. Or that many of the corporations he attacks found it convenient to donate money to the Obama campaign; hardly what you would expect of out of control free market corporate CEOs.
Still, having said all that, you should read this book. My two star review means, literally, that I did not like it. But it should be read nonetheless. People with a penchant for free market thought often assume that it is sufficient to demonstrate that Keyne's money multiplier effect does not, in fact, function as he predicted, in order to partially discredit the 'General Theory.' What this book suggests is that for many on today's "left," what Keynes actually had to say is not nearly as relevant as what they want to believe. Systematic analysis on the effects of tax cuts and increases, the money supply, and effect of regulations on the job market are all irrelevant to those who view (most) corporations as the embodiment of evil and Friedman as a "diminutive academic with dragonfly glasses."(p.29) So read it. If you have a left wing bent, you will probably find your biases confirmed. And the rest of us will get an insightful glimpse into the alternative reality that informs a significant percentage of the voting public. Must Read Want to keep our country out of the ditch? -- Then this is a MUST READ for you and your friends and family. This book comes from the horses mouth, and if you know ANYTHING about the evolution of our current govt. and its workings you'll get the ring of truth in the words of this author.
Hoodwinked This was given to my husband. He requested it and I haven't read it myself. A fin de cuentas una realidad Debo aceptar sin quererlo, que este tema es una realidad en este mundo global que vivimos y quisimos, es la consecuencia del ser humano al quererlo tener y pretender acaparar todo (claro está que todo lo material) y lo que más me apena, es que nosotros nos hemos dejado llevar por ese consumismo desmedido que alimenta tanto esa parte obscura del capitalismo que en este libro nos deja entrever Perkins. Me parece que esta lectura es obligada para todos y me refiero a TODOS, médicos, veterinarios, ingenieros, abogados, escritores, biólogos, químicos, en fin, todos estamos involucrados en esto, y solo de nosotros dependerá que cambiemos al mundo. "Felicidades John"
Unwittingly I accept, which this topic is a reality in this global world that we lived and want, It is the consequence of humans want it to be and pretend to take everything (of course that all material), and what more that I am shame, that is we have left us take that uncontrolled consumerism that both feeds that dark side of capitalism in this book suggested by Perkins. It seems to me that this reading is required for all and I mean EVERYBODY, doctors, veterinarians, engineers, lawyers, writers, biologists, chemicals, finally, we all are involved in this, and will depend only on us change the world. "Greetings John" |  |
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