The Shock Doctrine

By Naomi Klein

Liberals in the United States

In 2008, exit polls showed 22% of electorate self-identified as “liberal”

This represents a large proportion of American population, well over 50 million potential customers

This book is more easily marketable to this niche of American consumers

Summary

The Shock Doctrine presents many arguments appealing to liberal consumers... Big business and gov’t exploit disasters for

monetary gain Free-market systems are not optimal, and

gov’t must enforce them with torture American gov’t forced to make concessions to

the political left during Cold War, but are not bound anymore

Gov’t privatization is destructive to economy

Endorsements

After circulating this manuscript, the book received high praise from many publications and personalities

These many endorsements will increase appeal for liberal customers

Endorsements

“This is a brilliant book, one of the most important I have read in a long time.”

-Howard Zinn

Endorsements

“ [Shock Doctrine] Pulls the curtain back on free-market myths and exposes the forces that are really driving our economy... Klein’s book is powerful and prophetic... A brilliant dissection”

-Arianna Huffington

Endorsements

“A revelation! With unparalleled courage and clarity Naomi Klein has written the most important and necessary book of her generation...so important and so revelatory a book that could very well prove a catalyst, a watershed, a tipping point in the movement for economic and social justice”

-Tim Robbins

Endorsements from Publications

The Washington Post The Telegraph (U.K.) In These Times The New York Observer John Cusack Dow Jones Business News NOW Magazine (Canada) Toronto Star

The Independent (U.K.) New Statesman (U.K.) Ms. Magazine

Summary of Text

Divided into 23 Chapters, each covering different examples

Locales include... Latin America, United Kingdom, Poland,

China, South Africa, Russia, United States, and Iraq

All of these examples reinforce arguments

Aesthetic Appeal of Publication

All chapters and sections begin with diverse quotes pertaining to topic

Well organized and thoughtfully constructed Needs to be shortened at certain points

Introduction: “Blank is Beautiful”

Introduction of Milton Friedman’s ideas Introduction of the eponymous “Shock

Doctrine” Use of disasters and national turmoil in order

to introduce free-market policies Overview of examples to be presented later

Chapter 1: “The Torture Lab”

Introduces Dr. Ewen Cameron, who is hardly mentioned after this chapter, who experiments with electroshock therapy and “deprogramming” of personalities

Discusses connection between free-market systems and torture, priming the audience for the “shock” of economic policies

Likens deprogramming of patients to deprogramming of economic welfare policies

While illogical at parts, our intended audience will see the obvious connection between both electroshock torture and “shock” economic policies

Chapter 2: “The Other Doctor Shock”

Introduces Milton Friedman Discusses the implications of Chicago School

economic theory CIA-sponsored coups allowed Friedman to

influence economic policy in Latin America Exchange program set up to send Chilean

students to ultra-conservative University of Chicago

Chapter 3: “States of Shock”

Milton Friedman advises General Augusto Pinochet

Pinochet dismantles “developmental” economic system

Free-market policies were instituted Costs of basics went “through the roof,”

inflation was at all-time high, country was flooded with cheap imports

Big business benefits greatly, while poor are left to suffer

Chapter 4: Cleaning the Slate

Free-market ideology quickly spread to Argentina and Uruguay, with copious use of torture techniques and privatization

Pinochet repeatedly called to trial for crimes against humanity

Gov’ts in the Southern Cone were brutal towards dissenters, “disappearing” large populations of suspected unionists and leftists

Chapter 5: “Entirely Unrelated”

Friedman’s argument for separating economic policy with human rights abuses unfounded

Free-market policies are enforced by mass terror and detention

United States gov’t supported these abuses, and put undue blame on leftists guerrillas in Southern Cone

Chapter 6: “Saved by War”

Introduction of Thatcherism Margaret Thatcher used Falklands war to

institute privatization of British assets and make domestic war against coal miners strike in 1984

Thatcher did not go as far as dictators because she had to get reelected

Chapter 7: “A New Doctor Shock”

Bolivia’s ills are introduced: inflation of over 14,000%

Harvard Economist Jeffrey Sachs called in to develop anti-inflation policies

Sachs introduced free-market policies against wishes of voters

Inflation dropped to 10%, but not without pains

Unemployment rose to 30% Failure, argues the book

Chapter 8: “Crisis Works”

Milton Friedman’s disdain towards the IMF and World Bank is discussed

While he may have disdained them, Klein argues that “no institutions [were] better positioned to implement his crisis theory”

IMF forced gov’ts to adopt radical free-market policies as prerequisites for loans

Lower tax rates led countries to be unable to pay back loans

Chapter 9: “Slamming the Door on History”

Discusses Poland’s “Solidarity” movement Betrayal of socialist goals to the free-market

policies of Jeffrey Sachs, Friedman’s “Shock Doctrine” successor

Discusses China’s market liberalization Massacre at Tiananmen Square discussed,

connecting it to said liberalizations

Chapter 10: “Democracy Born in Chains”

End of apartheid in South Africa discussed While fighting under a banner of land-

redistribution, African National Congress (ANC) betrays supporters by signing over economic control of country to whites

De Klerk gov’t convinces ANC to promote radical free-market systems, which continue the economic apartheid of previous regime

Chapter 11: “Bonfire of a Young Democracy”

Soviet Union collapses; Boris Yeltsin gains power through dubious means

Auctions off massive Soviet monopolies to Oligarchs

Over 225,000 state-owned companies privatized

Third of population fell below poverty line Yeltsin enforces policies through emergency

powers; fires on parliament

Chapter 12: “The Capitalist ID”

Discusses the idea that Western gov’t implemented social democratic policies in order to appease leftists and maintain military control over European countries

Ruining of Canada’s credit score was concocted by free-market ideologues in order to defeat social welfare policies

Chapter 13: “Let it Burn”

Asian Tigers (South Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, and Singapore) economically destroyed by market fluctuations

Stronger gov’t policies would have prevented this fluctuation, saving countless lives and jobs

Chapter 14: “Shock Therapy in the U.S.A.”

Harshly criticizes Rumsfeld’s control of private assets representing a conflict of interests with his Cabinet position

Also criticizes Rumsfeld’s outsourcing of the military effort, which increases costs and creates companies not accountable to justice systems

Market for constant warfighting created through defense privatizations

Many jobs contracted out, as federal bureaucracy was downsized

Market for surveillance technology ballooned after 9/11

Chapter 15: “A Corporatist State”

Rumsfeld owned large share of company controlling Tamiflu, and sought policies to increase profits

Corporations beginning to dictate policy more aggressively

Chapter 16: “Erasing Iraq”

After the initial shock of invasion, Paul Bremer instituted massive free-market policies and torture in order to erase dissent

Iraq was testing ground for neo-conservative ideas that could not be implemented in United States

Privatization of military and reconstruction policies created inefficiencies in reconstruction, and poor results

Chapter 17: “Ideological Blowback”

Iraqi’s had no control over their own reconstruction

Subcontracting abounded, driving down quality of reconstruction

Free-market systems fed violence as thousands were plunged into poverty

United States “locked in” Bremer’s policies into the Constitution

Chapter 18: “Full Circle”

Free-market policies pillaged Iraq of any prosperity, leaving a scorched, violent land

Human rights groups watched as hundreds were tortured and detained

Skilled labor has fled Iraq Mahdi Army arises to provide basic services

and defense for disenfranchised Iraqis

Chapter 19: “Blanking the Beach”

The tsunami in Sri Lanka removed all ancestral homes from beaches, allowing hotels to buy up land

Hotel lobbyists influenced gov’t of Sri Lanka to allow them rights to beachfronts, while poor fisher families were moved inland

U.S. gov’t supported this in order to increase tourism

Chapter 20: “Disaster Apartheid”

While U.S. gov’t helped wealthier Katrina victims, the poor were left to suffer

Milton Friedman’s last publication called for privatization of New Orleans schools

Companies were called in to help with reconstruction of New Orleans, with negative results

Very inefficient disaster response due to free-market solutions

Chapter 21: “Losing the Peace Incentive”

In Israel, a booming market for high-tech surveillance and anti-terrorist equipment has been created by 9/11

In order to improve technology to be sold to the United States, Israel has no need to pursue peace.

This hampers any solutions to Israel-Palestine problems

Chapter 22: “Shock Wears Off”

In Latin American societies, gov’ts have been constitutionally elected once more, and are moving towards developmentalism once again

The shock doctrine’s policies will continue to be felt for years to come, but the world is on a road to recovery

In Conclusion

While overlong and preachy, this book is destined to be on the shelves of every liberal American, and is a profitable addition to our catalog