Apologies of an Economic Hit Man: Documentary Guide and Fact Check

Apologies of an Economic Hitman: A Documentary Viewing Guide

Apologies of an Economic Hit Man is a feature-length documentary by the Greek journalist and director Stelios Kouloglou about John Perkins, the American author of the 2004 bestseller Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. In the film Perkins repeats the central claim of his book: that as a consultant in the 1970s he helped persuade governments in poorer countries to take on huge development loans that enriched US companies and tied those nations to Washington. Its emotional peak comes when he apologises in person to the daughter of Ecuador's late president Jaime Roldós and to an audience of Ecuadorians.

The film is powerful, but much of it rests on one man's testimony. This guide explains who Perkins is, what the film shows, which of his claims are supported and which are disputed, and how to watch it with a clear head.

Who John Perkins is

Perkins worked in the 1970s as an economist for Chas. T. Main, an engineering and consulting firm in Boston. Its business included forecasting economic growth for countries seeking loans for dams, power plants and other infrastructure, often financed by the World Bank and similar lenders.

In Confessions he says that this work was a cover for something darker. According to his account, he was profiled by the National Security Agency, trained by a woman he calls Claudine, and told to produce inflated forecasts so that countries would borrow more than they could repay. The debts, he argues, then gave the United States leverage over their votes, resources and military bases. He describes himself and colleagues as "economic hit men". The book became a New York Times bestseller and was followed by several sequels, including The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man in 2016.

What the documentary shows

Kouloglou, a veteran investigative journalist who later served as a Member of the European Parliament for Greece, filmed interviews with Perkins in 2007 and 2008. The documentary has circulated under several titles, including Apology of an Economic Hit Man and Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and was shown at film festivals in the United States and Canada, winning awards in South Korea and Spain.

Most of the film is Perkins telling his story, supported by archive footage, Cold War propaganda clips and some dramatised scenes. He returns to Latin America and revisits the cases of two leaders who died in plane crashes in 1981: Jaime Roldós of Ecuador and General Omar Torrijos of Panama. Perkins believes both were killed for resisting US economic pressure. In the climactic scene he meets Roldós's daughter and faces an audience in Ecuador, many of whom are angry, to say he is sorry for his part in the system he describes.

What is supported, and what is disputed

Some of Perkins's broader themes have mainstream support. Many economists agree that a number of developing countries borrowed heavily in the 1970s for projects that did not pay off, and that the debt crises of the 1980s caused severe hardship. Loans tied to contracts for firms from the lending country were common. Critics of the World Bank and IMF, including some former insiders, have raised similar concerns about austerity conditions.

His most dramatic personal claims are another matter. The US State Department issued a rebuttal stating there was no documentary or testimonial evidence that the NSA had anything to do with his hiring, and noting that the NSA is not an economic agency. Einar Greve, the Main executive who hired him, told reporters he knew nobody from the NSA, though he agreed foreign debt had been a poor strategy for many poor countries. Washington Post columnist Sebastian Mallaby called Perkins a conspiracy theorist, and the historian Niall Ferguson pointed out that US lending to Ecuador and Panama was a tiny fraction of total US aid and loans, hardly worth assassinating anyone over.

The deaths of Roldós and Torrijos remain the subject of suspicion in both countries, and investigations have never fully settled every question. No official inquiry, however, has established that US agents caused either crash. Viewers should treat the film's account of these deaths as Perkins's belief rather than a proven fact.

Checking the quotes that travel with the film

Pages sharing this documentary often add a set of quotations. Here is what can be said about them.

The Iraq war comparison. In Confessions, Perkins contrasts the roughly $87 billion the US requested in 2003 for operations in Iraq with a UN estimate that less than half that sum could provide clean water, adequate food, sanitation and basic education for everyone on earth. The $87 billion was a real supplemental budget request. UN development reports of the late 1990s did estimate that basic services for all would cost around $40 billion a year, but that figure was an annual cost, not a one-off payment.
The "true terrorists" line. A quotation contrasting stereotypical terrorists with powerful people in expensive suits is credited to Peter Joseph, creator of the Zeitgeist film series. It is an opinion, not a factual statement.
Einstein the "militant pacifist". The words "I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist" are widely attributed to Albert Einstein and are usually traced to an interview he gave around 1930. Einstein did campaign for war resistance in that period, though he changed his position after Hitler came to power in 1933.

How to watch it critically

A documentary built around one witness can be moving and still incomplete. A few habits help:

Follow one claim. Pick a single allegation and note who makes it, what evidence is shown and whether anyone independent confirms it.
Separate experience from interpretation. Perkins can be a reliable source on what his job involved while being less reliable on the motives of governments he never worked inside.
Look for the other side. The film gives little time to former colleagues, lenders or economists who disagree. Reading their responses gives a fuller picture.
Keep the bigger debate in view. Whether or not every detail is true, questions about debt, conditional lending and who benefits from aid projects remain live.

Why the film still resonates

Part of the documentary's lasting appeal, especially in Greece, where it was made, is timing. It appeared just before the 2010 Greek debt crisis, when many Greeks felt that loans and the conditions attached to them were reshaping their country from outside. Kouloglou's later work and related documentaries such as Debtocracy explored similar themes. Watched today, Apologies of an Economic Hit Man works best as a personal confession and a starting point for questions, rather than as a final verdict on how the world economy works.

Sources: Wikipedia: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man; Wikipedia: Stelios Kouloglou; CJSF review: Apology of an Economic Hitman (Vancouver International Film Festival). Film directed by Stelios Kouloglou.

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