Chapter 2 Summary and Analysis

The narrator had no clue what MAIN actually did. He is first assigned to Kuwait, so he thoroughly researches that country. He is approached by a beautiful woman in the Library, who gives him a book on Kuwait. She will train him to be an Economic Hit Man (EHM). The whole thing seemed "cloak-and-dagger" to him. She explained that EHMs have two objectives—to justify large loans for less-developed countries (LDC's) and to bankrupt those countries that took the loans, so they would be permanently indebted to their creditors. Because experienced technicians from the US are employed, the loan money goes back to the US. When the U.S. needs favors such as military bases, U.N. votes, or natural resources such as oil, the bankrupt countries are pressured to concede. The US used these policies to fight the Soviet...