Disaster Capitalism

If you ever noticed how magically no-bid contractors sprung up upon the decision to invade Iraq or how conveniently the residents of New Orleans were bused out after Hurricane Katrina and the 9th ward was never rebuilt...how that little something isn't quite right fly buzzes in the back of your brain while you returned to economic survival of your own, I have a must read book for you.

The Shock Doctrine - The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein.

Klein has identified a new corporate strategy of using natural and man made disasters to push through corporate profit driven privatization and other agendas while the general public are disoriented, confused and thus have no ability to resist.

She calls Disaster Capitalism the rapid-fire corporate reengineering of societies that are reeling from shock.

Some facts from the book.

Did you know that New Orleans school system was privatized into Charter Schools and that the prevailing wage laws were suspended?

That Sri Lanka's shoreline is now privately owned by corporate tourist hotels after the tsunami?

That the Asian financial crisis in the 90's had a hold out from the IMF until they let go of their managed economies (that means consideration of the people)?

Klein puts much of the blame on Milton Friedman, although I would claim the philosopher king of privatization simply worked for King Midas and it is the multinational corporate elites who need a religion for their new found wealth redistribtuion...to themselves.

Klein clearly has a background in economics and while she brings in the history of psychological warfare, torture and other mass psychology techniques to create confusion among the crowd, the economic examples are invaluable.

The question now wandering around in my brain:

Is the United States next on the list for these crisessubprime to be created since the American people are already outraged and have blocked some previous global labor arbitrage agenda, removal of social safety nets and other privatization attemptssocial security?

Klein CSPAN interview about the book, segment discussing Iraq:

Interview discussing general mass psychology shock and privatizations:

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Comments

What no hammer up side the head for the....

.....daddy of 'Disaster Capitalism' that evil lil' elf Mr. 'Chicago School' Friedman?

Him and pals Cheney and Dr. Kissinger helped 'figure out' Chile and Argentina. Funny how such incompetents came to be regarded as genius's.

Not hah...hah funny.

The genius was in turning normal humans metrics upside down.

Destroying a country's economy turned out to be an enormously profitable undertaking.

And so it continues.

'When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.'

Milton Friedman

His Nobel prize was for monetary policy but also differentiating between business cycles and crisis cycles.

Economic Disaster

Last weekend was an economic disaster--especially for Bear, Stearns. Somehow I get the feeling that JPM won this with a no bid contract--and that Mr Cayne had a shotgun to his head. The whole thing is too fishy--and too profitable for JPM.