Naomi Klein: Financial crisis part of Bush 'shock doctrine'

[struggle4progress]

David Edwards and Andrew McLemore
Published: Sunday September 21, 2008

... In a Friday night interview on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Naomi Klein said President Bush’s $700 billion proposal to rescue the financial sector stems from a profiteering streak that has dominated the last eight years.

"The disaster is far from over," Klein said. "The disaster was on Wall Street and they have moved the disaster to Main Street."

Referring to the bailout, Klein said the "bomb has yet to detonate" and that the real crisis will strike when tax payers are overwhelmed when faced with the debt from the bailouts.

According to Klein, the bomb will detonate if Sen. John McCain becomes president and "rationalizes" that it is necessary to privatize government programs like social security and healthcare because neither the government nor Americans can afford them ...

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Naomi_Klein_Financial_crisis_part_of_0921.html

[Lorien]

1. She's obviously right on all counts

Sullivan still is, at heart, nothing more than a greed driven Republican.

[Locrian]

2. this is SPOT ON

I keep hearing that we "dodged a bullet" and that the bail out will "save us". BULLSHIT!!!

This is disaster capitalism / shock doctrine happening RIGHT F-ING NOW, and they are setting the stage for privatizing EVERYTHING right now.

The banks are calling the shots because they (the FED) is a private bank - so the bailout requires borrowing from the same fuc*ing people who made the mess in the first place!!!! There is NO talk of meaningful regulation at all.....

We are in the same position as S. America was in the 1970's - the bail out will enable them to finally succeed in privatizing what is left of the United States.

[Fly by night]

3. Does anyone check what's already been posted around here anymore?

This is the sixth OP on this very same "Real Time" Naomi Klein story in the last 24 hours. How about something new, guys?

[ProfessorPlum]

4. Maybe it's important

Even more so because barely anyone around this country understands Klein's (extremely correct) thesis.

[Locrian]

5. even the video doesnt really get it across

The conservative was still harping on "its the **peoples** fault.

And partly it is - but much more so the way the the economy works. That MANIPULATION and all the human emotions are USED to create the bubble.

And it is all base on BOGUS believe that economists have "proven" a deregulated market is best for society. The conservative guy even SAYS that - but it isnt true. The basis for all the economic models that supposedly prove that markets self-regulate and produce the best social conditions are FALSE. MATHEMATICALLY PROVEN TO BE FALSE. Right on down to fundamental supply / demand curves etc.

http://www.debunking-economics.com/

[lelgt60]

11. yes - open loop systems (without regulating feedback) are almost always unstable

[Fly by night]

9. Keeping other OPs on the same topic alive (by K&R) would accomplish the same thing.

It sometimes seems like we talk past each other here, not bothering to read what has been posted before. I am guilty of that myself.

[KoKo]

10. Not everyone is on DU all day to catch a post before it goes to archives.

Posting important articles so that folks who log on at different times is helpful. :shrug: If you don't like looking at a repeat post you can always hit the "X" and it goes away.

[Fly by night]

14. The previous five OPs on this same topic were ALL still active when this was posted.

Several of them were also still on the "Greatest" page when this was posted.

My suggestion was just that -- to review what has been posted already before starting a competing OP on the same topic. No OP is archived that is still being actively discussed. When we post the same OP as others on the same topic that are active on the board, we diffuse the discussion on that topic, rather than expanding it.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[xchrom]

6. she's right -- and it exposed sullivan for the republick party person he is. nt

[Locrian]

7. yeah - but

But his refrain: "its the people who took out the mortgages are to blame" will resonate with the people who want to believe that you are in control of your destiny. You are of course to some extent - but when to talk an economic SYSTEM it behaves exactly the way they designed it: SPECTACULAR profits drove the rigging of the system.

The thing is he IS right - its just that its at the TOP where the problem started.

[fencesitter]

8. thanks for posting this..

I don't have HBO, so I never get to see Maher, but I just finished Klein's book and this whole bailout thing fit her theory to a "T". Reading her book made this so painfully obvious the next step would be to use this debt to push through more government drowning policies.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

12. Yeah, finally finished reading her book

and it should be required reading in every American high school history class. She literally travelled all over the world (sometimes at great personal risk), and it is a jaw-dropper. When she appears on any TV interviews or talk shows, she should be alone....what she has to say is too important.

[OakCliffDem]

13. Republicans want to make it easy for other Republicans to profit