The New Face of "Disaster Capitalism"

"You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid."  Rahm Emanuel in today's NYT.

The difference between that sentiment and the views supposedly behind "disaster capitalism" are what, exactly?  I can't wait for Naomi Klein to come out screaming about the fascist Obama administration. 

Somehow, I expect more crickets.  (HT:  Jonah Goldberg)

Comments

[Bob Murphy]

Man, I really don't understand why so many libertarians are so outraged over Klein's book. Steve, if you replaced "capitalism" with "crony capitalism" throughout her book, would it suddenly be the best book of the decade (rather than the worst book of the decade, as you described it in the other post)?

I agree Klein was sloppy in calling "capitalism" the system that certain right-wingers were foisting on people, but then again *those people themselves* were calling it capitalism. I don't think her sloppiness was worse than libertarians who use "Marxist," "socialist," and "communist" interchangeably, even though that bothers actual Marxists etc.

BTW here is a positive review by Joe Stromberg of her book. (It's the second review.)

http://www.fee.org/Publications/the-Freeman/article.asp?aid=8353

[Steve Horwitz]

I've seen that review and I do think it's about as positive a reading as you can get. The problem with the book is exactly what you say, however: she fails to make the absolutely key distinction on which the whole argument rests! What you're saying is "Aside from THAT Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

That distinction IS the issue.

I also think her brutal treatment of Friedman and the intellectual dishonesty it involved is plenty reason to hate the book on its own.

If I can do a little plug for the November Cato Unbound, which should be up shortly, it is all about the issue of the differences between corporatism and a genuine free market, with Rod Long being the primary essayist and comments by Matt Yglesias, Dean Baker, and yours truly.

[John V]

Bob,

I read her book and no, it's not just a matter of changing words. She makes terrible, jumbled and confused connections capitalism in general, free markets, Friedman and so on.

It was a totally ignorant book. Klein doesn't how to separate different POV's that, to her, seem to all be the same thing.

She's an idiot.

[John V]

Excellent news on new Cato Unbound topic, Dr. Horwitz.

Looking forward to it.

I hope Yglesias doesn't embarrass himself in Klein-esque fashion. I expect him NOT to but you never know.

[Bob Murphy]

OK just for my own sanity you guys are going to force me to reread large sections of Klein's book (I hope you're happy :)). Because I remember being very disturbed by the stuff she quoted from Friedman to Pinochet, after Klein documented what a...jerk...Pinochet was. So once I dig up the specific passages, I'll blog them or something, and then the Klein-haters can tell me if she is just making the stuff up.

[Steve Horwitz]

Bob,

Save you and me some time and just read Johan Norberg's absolute destruction of the book here:

http://www.cato.org/pubs/bp/bp102.pdf

[Rafe Champion]

Bob, there is no point in writing about capitalism unless the author understands and explain the difference between market entrepreneurs and political entrepreneurs a la Folsom. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burton_W._Folsom,_Jr.