He began his crusade with the publication of his 2004 NYT bestseller, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” wherein he laid bare the tactics of multinational corporations as they plundered the resources of the developing world, saddling struggling economies with crippling debt for “infrastructure” projects through the World Bank and IMF, which, surprise….  enriched a few well-connected elites and forced governments to slash social programs and business regulations and join the “global economy.”  As an “economist” for a global consulting firm, he spent ten years “advising” governments to mortgage their futures, and even their autonomy, for pie-in-the-sky “development” ventures that increased misery, made police state tactics necessary and inevitable, and in the end, failed to do what they were supposed to do in the first place.  Country after country collapsed after drinking the magic elixir of Chicago School economics, but that didn’t stop its relentless and well-funded adherents at home to convince a string of US Presidents to similarly imbibe.

Of course, given that Milton Friedman’s nonsensical theories have a completely unbroken record of failure in the real world, it’s rather stunning that they still enjoy so much currency here at home, that is until you realize that half of Americans don’t believe in evolution, and people in the media are, as we speak, seriously discussing Sarah Palin as a viable presidential candidate.  That spark of stupidity, relentlessly fanned by the bellows of a shallow and corrupt media has created a wildfire of disasters which, in the minds of their creators, only means that much more of the same is necessary.

Thus, when the economy shows disturbing signs of overheating, the answer is to further deregulate the banks.  Sounded plausible enough to Clinton, who also though media consolidation might be good, too.  Thanks, Bubba.  When enormous tax cuts for the wealthy  open yawning gaps in the budget, the answer is to cut them some more.  Light a little candle for Arthur Laffer and look for a place in Dubai.  When the overbearing military adventurism and economic imperialism we’ve unleashed on the world for decades comes home to roost on Sept. 11, 2001,  the only course is to start two more wars, torture people, and make ham-handed grabs for their natural resources.  That’ll win hearts and minds, I tell you.  Ah, and when a relatively minor hurricane drowns a major city and exposes the dire poverty many of its residents suffer, everybody knows that the answer is to eliminate the public school system, close the charity hospital, and demolish the public housing.  That effort alone was, unlike the others, successful; an annoying blue spot in a sea of cracker red was wiped away, leaving virtually the entire confederacy in the grabby hands of the Republicans.

Perkins believes that the collapse of our economy represents an opportunity to confront the abject failure of predatory capitalism and fashion something better from the rubble.  He points to 10 countries in Latin America, all of which were once right-wing dictatorships, that have denounced and abandoned Friedman’s destructive delusions, and adopted a path toward creating sustainable societies that share rewards more broadly, and clip the wings of the multinationals that had kept them under the yoke for a century and more.  He explains why Latin Americans lean toward China and Russia for aid and distrust the United States…  Only the latter has a military presence and designs on their territory and resources, evidenced once again in our elbowing into Colombia of late.

For many years, the predatory capitalists never let a disaster go to waste.  Perkins thinks we shouldn’t waste this one.