The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

In 2006, Milton Friedman died. His legacy is one of heightened global economic inequality and violent, sometimes illegal, impositions of Chicago School policies. However, many of the world leaders who embraced Friedman’s policies were facing legal challenges in 2006. 

Furthermore, populations in democratic countries were increasingly rejecting further imposition of neoliberal policies. For instance, left-wing politicians like Hugo Chávez, Daniel Ortega, Lula da Silva, and others won leadership contests throughout Latin America. In some instances, this rejection took the form of right-wing reactionary populism, as in the election of ultraconservative Lech Kaczynski in Poland, who blamed the poor economic situation there on “gays, Jews, feminists, foreigners, Communists” (449). Klein notes that Chicago School ideologues see socialism as its greatest threat, which is why they publicly call it Communism and “deliberately blu[r] the clear differences between the worldviews” (451).

In the 2000s, leftwing leaders in Latin America began to roll back the neoliberal policies that were so damaging to their economies. They reduced their vulnerability to shocks in the global prices for commodities by forming the Bolivian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), a fair trade zone where countries provide goods and services to each other at intra-negotiated prices (rather than at the global price point).