For Immediate Release
Contact: Lea Ann Scales
Assistant Vice President of
Public Relations and Marketing
Phone: 508-929-8018
October 14, 2011
 (Worcester, Mass.) — New York Times Bestselling Author John Perkins will deliver the talk, “Economic Crisis: The Hit Men Strike Home, What Next, and How to Deal With It,” Tuesday October 18, at 7:00 p.m. in the Worcester State University Sullivan Auditorium. The talk is free and open to the public and will be followed by a book signing.
Over 700 Worcester State University students are reading Perkins’ best seller “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,’ as part of their, “First year Experience,” course. The talk is also part of the university’s semester-long theme, “Worcester in the World.” “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man spent over 70 weeks on the New York Times best sellers list and has been published in more than 30 languages. He is also the author of two follow-up books: New York Times bestseller, “The Secret History of the American Empire,” and “Hoodwinked.” Perkins is the founder and board member of Dream Change and The Pachamama Alliance. He has lectured at universities on four continents. He served as Chief Economist at a major international consulting firm during the 1970s. He advised the World Bank, United Nations, International Monetary Fund (IMF), U.S. Treasury Department, Fortune 500 corporations, and countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. In his role as economic hit man, he worked directly with heads of state and CEOs of major companies to promote and develop the types of projects described in “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” a book that sold over one million copies.
Perkins has been following and blogging about the Occupy Wall Street movement on his website www.johnperkins.org. His post dated October 10 reads, “Returning from Istanbul where I spoke at a summit of 4,000 communications leaders and was interviewed on CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg and by major newspapers about the importance of all the protest movements in the Middle East and Europe, I’m incredibly encouraged by events in my country. The sit-ins and demonstrations to protest the modern-day robber barons and what they’ve done to us are inspirational. We know those with money and power go to great lengths to cheat the rest of us.
In terms of U.S. wealth distribution: The 10 percent at the top of the economic ladder own nearly 90% of stocks, bonds, trust funds and business equity and over 75% of non-home real estate. We know these very few exercise undue influence over the rest of us, our Congress and our current President.”
As part of the semester-long theme “Worcester in the World, students are learning about sustainable agriculture, international economics, and experiencing the arts and cultural of the broader world.
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