columnist sebastian mallaby of "the washington post" reacted sharply to perkins' book: "this man is a frothing conspiracy theorist, a vainglorious peddler of nonsense, and yet his book, "confessions of an economic hit man", is a runaway bestseller." this charge is brought against perkins despite the fact that he denounces conspiracy-thinking at numerous places in the book itself. mallaby, who spent 13 years writing for the london "economist" and wrote a critically well-received biography of world bank chief james wolfensohn, holds that perkins' conception of international finance is "largely a dream" and that his "basic contentions are flat wrong". for instance, he points out that indonesia reduced its infant mortality and illiteracy rates by two-thirds after economists persuaded its leaders to borrow money in 1970. (data by the world bank itself shows that the decline slowed somewhat in the 70s) he also disputes perkins' claim that 51 of the top 100 world economies belong to companies. a value-added comparison done by the un, he says, shows the number to be 29. in fact, this report can be quoted as saying "the results, as seen in table 1, are striking, with only 29 countries figuring in the list of the top 100 international entities in terms of revenue." showing how both are wrong.