From 1971 to 1981 John Perkins was Chief Economist and Director of Economics and Regional Planning for Chas T. Main, an international consulting firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. In 2004 he published a best-selling memoir called Confessions of an Economic Hitman, in which he describes his work at Main and the duplicitous means by which corporate America has prospered at the expense of many of the world's poorest nations. His 2007 book, The Secret History of the American Empire, also focussed on the negative impact of global corporations on poor countries, and proposed ideas for making corporations behave more like good citizens.