From the author of the New York Times bestseller, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

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Since World War II, US presidents of both parties have relied on an economic hit man strategy.

They have used the four pillars of that strategy (fear, debt, anxiety over insufficiency, and divide and conquer) to control other nations and enrich a growing oligarchy.

In the groundbreaking Confessions of an Economic Hit Man trilogy, John Perkins exposed the complex, expansive, and clandestine global network that serves the interests of powerful corporate, financial, and political entities. InThe Art of the Steal, he reveals its most dangerous evolution.

Donald Trump represents a historic shift. He is the first US president to turn the economic hit man strategy into a personal brand and governing style. He has ascended the four pillars, brought the playbook home, and reversed the march toward the American ideal of liberty, equality, justice, democracy, opportunity, and an individualism that supports family and community. At the same time, he has forced what was hidden into the open.

This book explains

  • how this happened,
  • why it matters, and
  • what each of us can do to turn things around.

Both warning and blueprint, it offers a pathway to renewing the American ideal—and using it to model a new global ideal.

“John Perkins’s books have helped me better understand something that has been puzzling me for a long time: Why have so many resource-rich countries in the developing world remained steadfastly poor? The answers he gives are both complex and uncomfortable, and none of us in the first world can abrogate responsibility easily.”

—Sting

“Resonates with my experiences of the brutish methods and gross economic irrationality guiding powerful institutions in their bid to undermine democratic control over economic power. Perkins has, once again, made a substantial contribution to a world that needs whistle-blowers to open its eyes to the true sources of political, social, and economic power.”

—Yanis Varoufakis, former Minister of Finance, Greece

“A significant contribution to the new universal way of searching for innovative and better approaches to coexistence.”

—Dr. Rafael Correa Delgado, former President, Ecuador

“An eye-opening exposé of global corruption and a fascinating story of adventure and intrigue. This devastating indictment of current economic policies also offers hope by showing the power of the growing movement toward a caring economics worldwide.”

—Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade and The Real Wealth of Nations

“Offers deep insights into the nefarious ways economic hit men and jackals have expanded their powers. It shows how they came home to roost in the United States—as well as the rest of the world. It is a brilliant and bold book that illuminates the crises we now face and offers a road map to stop them.”

—John Gray, PhD, author of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus