The Shock Doctrine

July 23, 2007
The neo-liberal economic policies—privatization, free trade, slashed social spending—that the “Chicago School” and the economist Milton Friedman have foisted on the world are catastrophic in two senses, argues this vigorous polemic. Because their results are disastrous—depressions, mass poverty, private corporations looting public wealth, by the author's accounting—their means must be cataclysmic, dependent on political upheavals and natural disasters as coercive pretexts for free-market “reforms” the public would normally reject. Journalist Klein (No Logo
) chronicles decades of such disasters, including the Chicago School makeovers launched by South American coups; the corrupt sale of Russia's state economy to oligarchs following the collapse of the Soviet Union; the privatization of New Orleans's public schools after Katrina; and the seizure of wrecked fishing villages by resort developers after the Asian tsunami. Klein's economic and political analyses are not always meticulous. Likening free-market “shock therapies” to electroshock torture, she conflates every misdeed of right-wing dictatorships with their economic programs and paints a too simplistic picture of the Iraq conflict as a struggle over American-imposed neo-liberalism. Still, much of her critique hits home, as she demonstrates how free-market ideologues welcome, and provoke, the collapse of other people's economies. The result is a powerful populist indictment of economic orthodoxy.

Klein's opposition to free-market economics is clearly evident in her book. She draws analogies between the CIA's "shock doctrine" (torture techniques and brainwashing) and the application of free economics in a number of South American countries, Britain, and others. In these countries, she says, the goal is tabla rasa--wiping the slate clean and beginning fresh with a free-market regime. The narration is sharp and clean. Jennifer Wiltsie does not overplay the strong conviction that underlies Klein's beliefs. As a result, Wiltsie's delivery complements the author's arguments, which some listeners may find compelling and disturbing, and other listeners--advocates of a free market--will think are misguided. In either case, the arguments are well presented. J.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine