Sound Money: A Shield Against Economic Hit Men

IMF and World Bank swoop in, demanding austerity, privatization, or resource giveaways. Sound money flips this script. Take a currency like Bitcoin

Sound Money: A Shield Against Economic Hit Men
Photo by fikry anshor / Unsplash

In Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins pulls back the curtain on a chilling playbook: powerful nations and corporations—often via entities like the IMF, World Bank, and U.S. operatives—trap developing countries in debt, plunder their resources, and bend them to foreign will. It’s economic warfare dressed as aid, and it thrives on shaky financial systems. But what if those systems were built on sound money—currency that can’t be manipulated or inflated at whim? Bitcoin, could blunt these predatory tactics, offering nations and their people a way to fight back. Here’s how.

The Hit Man’s Game: Debt as a Weapon

Perkins describes a pattern: “economic hit men” (EHMs) pitch massive loans to poor countries for overpriced infrastructure—dams, roads, power plants—knowing they can’t repay. When the bill comes due, the IMF and World Bank swoop in, demanding austerity, privatization, or resource giveaways. It’s a trap, fueled by fiat currency’s flexibility. Rich nations print dollars, lend them out, and watch the dominos fall.

Sound money flips this script. Take a currency like Bitcoin or a gold standard—its supply is fixed, not expandable by a central bank’s whim. No printing press, no flood of cheap loans to ensnare a nation. If the U.S. or China couldn’t conjure cash out of thin air, the EHM’s opening move—dangling billions in easy credit—would stall. Countries could only borrow what’s actually there, forcing transparency and real negotiations, not debt disguised as generosity.

Starving the Enforcers

Perkins highlights how the IMF and World Bank act as enforcers, strong-arming nations into compliance once they’re hooked. Fiat’s magic makes this possible: endless dollars fund these institutions, letting them dictate terms—cut your schools, sell your oil, open your markets. Sound money starves this machine. Without fiat’s infinite tap, global lenders would shrink, their leverage would wane, and their ability to impose “structural adjustment” would falter.

Imagine a country holding Bitcoin reserves instead of dollars. It’s not beholden to the IMF’s dollar-based system. Need to pay debts? Convert crypto on your terms, not theirs. Need to trade? Bypass banks they control. Sound money doesn’t kill the debt game entirely—nations could still borrow—but it shifts power, making predatory terms harder to enforce.

Protecting the Prize: Resources

The endgame, Perkins reveals, is resources—oil, minerals, land—handed over to corporations when debts can’t be paid. Fiat greases this theft: devalued local currencies make assets cheap for dollar-wielding buyers. Sound money defends the prize. A nation using Bitcoin or gold isn’t stuck with a collapsing peso or rupee; its wealth holds steady, harder to snatch up in a fire sale.

Perkins cites Ecuador and Panama, bled dry by dollar debts. With sound money, their bargaining power rises. A gold-backed currency or crypto stash means they’re not at the mercy of exchange rates rigged by Wall Street. Foreign firms want their oil? They’d pay market value, not pick it off a desperate debtor’s corpse.

Empowering the People

The real victims in Perkins’ tale aren’t just governments—they’re citizens, crushed by austerity or displaced by megaprojects. Sound money hands them a lifeline. Bitcoin, for instance, lets individuals sidestep corrupt banks and inflation. A farmer in Nigeria or a worker in Indonesia could save in a currency that doesn’t evaporate when the IMF demands “reforms.” It’s not a fix for everything—poverty’s deep—but it’s a shield against the economic chaos EHMs thrive on.

Perkins saw locals suffer as elites cut deals. Sound money decentralizes that power. No central authority can freeze your Bitcoin wallet because you protest a dam. No dictator can print more to fundcronies. It’s not utopia, but it’s leverage—grassroots defiance to match top-down predation.

The Hit Men’s Counterstrike

Sound money isn’t a silver bullet. Perkins’ EHMs would adapt—bribes, threats, and coups don’t need fiat to work. A nation adopting Bitcoin might face sanctions or sabotage; gold reserves can still be stolen. But the game changes. Sound money shrinks the financial arsenal—less debt to wield, less inflation to inflict. It forces predators to fight harder, on fairer ground.

Look at Perkins’ examples: Saudi Arabia’s oil wealth was locked into dollar deals via fiat’s dominance. With sound money, they could’ve held gold or Bitcoin, negotiating from strength, not dependency. The hit men’s playbook relies on fiat’s flaws—take those away, and their hustle gets messy.

A Philosophical Win

Perkins ends his book with a call to rethink systems that enable this corruption. Sound money answers that call. It’s not just practical—it’s a rejection of the fiat-fueled power he decries. Plato might call it a step toward justice; Franklin might see it as liberty’s coin. For nations caught in the EHM’s web, it’s a way to say no—to debt traps, resource grabs, and puppet regimes.

Bitcoin won’t undo history’s damage, but they could rewrite the future. By stripping away the tools of economic coercion, sound money turns Perkins’ confession into a battle plan: build a system where the hit men can’t win.