"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, 3rd Edition" describes three waves of economic hitmen—highly paid professionals that use debt and fear to control natural resources in developing countries on behalf of American corporations.

I should know. I was an economic hitman. The first wave began when I was getting started as an #economichitman in the 1970s. We focused on exploiting lower-income countries that had resources our corporations coveted, like oil.

One of the characteristics of a superpower in decline is that its economy becomes deeply dependent on other countries.

For the Romans, it was resources stolen from their far-reaching empire. For the Spanish, it was Inca and Aztec gold and silver.

For America... The US economy is deeply dependent on other countries, producing less of nearly everything except legal documents, mergers, and financial instruments.

It's been 20 years since I exposed the "economic hitman" strategy, whereby rich countries use fear and debt to control the so-called developing world.

China changed the game completely. I can't understate it. They perfected the "economic hitman" strategy.

How? (Part 1) Let's start with fear.

American "economic hitmen" leveraged fear of our vast military...

Twenty years ago I blew the whistle on American "economic hitmen" — highly paid professionals that use debt and fear to control natural resources in developing countries on behalf of American corporations.

It has gotten so much worse. The tools we economic hitmen (EHM) used have become FAR more dangerous for the so-called "developing world" by China and their optimized EHM strategy.

Bear with me.