Back in 2007, Naomi Klein wrote The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.  In her book – some odd reading, since the writing style for the latter half of the book seemed quite different from the first half – Klein argued that "the free market policies of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman have risen to prominence in some countries because of a deliberate strategy of certain leaders to exploit crises by pushing through controversial, exploitative policies while citizens were too busy emotionally and physically reeling from disasters or upheavals to create an effective resistance." While I disagree with Klein's politics, a broader interpretation of the shock doctrine thesis is correct; this is a salesmanship technique undoubtedly as old as civilization itself.  There are many people all across the political spectrum who follow the shock doctrine manual: create (or exploit) a crisis and profit by the solution to the problem you created (or...(Read Full Article)