Yesterday, I read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, the memoirs of John Perkins, who served as the Chief Economist for MAIN, a now-defunct Halliburton rival of the 1970s. I wouldn't say much of the "how the US treats other countries" material was new to me, nor is Perkins necessarily the best writer. I do recommend the book, though. You probably won't find any other non-fiction treatment of post-World War II international finance that reads like an episode of Alias. It's interesting to note that the US Department of State has printed a refutation of the book that doesn't actually challenge any of the claims Perkins makes - "Sure, all that destabilizing of foreign governments stuff is routine, but this guy thinks he was somehow working for the NSA! What a nut job, are we right?"

EDIT: I swear I posted this last night. In fact, the feedreaders in which I watch my own posts think so too - I cut/pasted the above from livejournal. But it's totally not here - this is a repost.

If I needed any proof that the story was true, that's it - the NSA cracked my blog last night and deleted this post!