The Shock Doctrine - The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

In this book, the author exposes the gripping story of how America's 'free market' policies have come to dominate the world - through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries. At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq's civil war vast oil reserves. Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly out-sources the running of the 'War on terror' to Halliburton and Blackwater. After a powerful tsunami devastates the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts. New Orlean's residents, still scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be reopened. These events are examples of what Naomi Klein calls 'the shock doctrine' - the use of public disorientation following massive collective shocks - wars, terrorists attacks, natural disasters - to push through unpopular economic measures often called 'shock therapy'. Based on breakthrough historical research and four years of on-the-ground reporting in disaster zones, 'The shock doctrine' shows how the deliberate use of the shock doctrine produced world-changing events from Pinochet's coup in Chile in 1973 to the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991...