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“This powerful book put together a lot pieces for me -- neoliberal economics, the IMF, Latin America, Russia, Poland, South Africa, Iraq, military contractors, Katrina, the tsunami cleanup and more. It sums up 30 years of neoliberal "shock" global economic interventions and the rise of a private "disaster capitalism" industrial complex. Great thesis and expertly presented. I don't like political rants, and this isn't one. It's a thoroughly researched and well-written. Klein explains how Chicago School economists and the IMF (going against their mission) intervened and rewrote the economic programs of countries around the world, privatizing industries and selling them off for pennies on the dollar to (mainly U.S.-owned) multinationals without regard for the livelihood of locals. Understandably these programs aren't very popular. Klein presents evidence that the U.S. and corporate interests exploited (and sometimes engineered) economic and political crises that make these restructuring loan package seem like the only option. In the case of Chile, which was experiencing prosperity under socialist Aliende, it required a CIA-assisted military coup (hello, Pinochet) and CIA-developed torture methods (shock therapy and isolation). These neoliberal reformers, she says, are contemporary colonialists--instead of directly grabbing national resources of underdeveloped nations, they are selling off pieces of their already-developed state. The same model, with some variations, was pursued in Argentina (airline sold), Bolivia (water system sold). Russia (oil fields) and Poland (factories) too. Maybe saddest is the case of South Africa, which finally achieved independence from Apartheid but unwittingly bargained away control over its economy, leading to privatization -- going against promises by Mandela that this would never happen. The effect was worsening conditions for the people. Iraq is presented as a laboratory for privatization and what Klein calls an "anti Marshall Plan." After WWII, we bared outside companies from buying up Europe at bargain prices, allowing them to get on their feet. In Iraq she also documents the rise of a disaster capitalism complex. Not only was the Chicago School privatization model followed, but the massive amount of money for private companies doing "reconstruction" (Haliburton et al) took over the role of government for everything, even writing the rules and contracts. In effect, our government has been giving away pieces of itself -- even core functions like defense and policing. The standard model for these companies is to subcontract, and that subcontract itself if subcontracted, drastically reducing the amount of money actually spend on doing the job (an air conditioner is downgraded to a fan). And contractor labor and materials are imported (no investment in Iraq, and unemployment for Iraqis), even when its ten time more expensive (who cares, Uncle Sam is paying). This private army model is repeated in response to Katrina. The same failed Iraq contractors were hired to clean up and create Iraq-like "green zones" for the wealthy and neglected slum "red zones" for everyone else. And, the '04 tsunami clean up gave investment-hungry governments the excuse to clean their beaches of locals to make way for high-end resort hotels. The book ends on a hopeful note, showing how Latin America has recently been laughing in the face of the IMF and doing things their own way by taking ownership of their national resources and putting their own people to work. Hello Chavez!”
Tim P. wrote this review Saturday, December 1 2007.
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