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Everyone knows that Milton Friedman advocated a kind of “disaster capitalismâ€.
Specifically, as explained in the Shock Doctrine, whenever a natural, economic, war-related, or other disaster strikes, the Friedmanites pounce and use the opportunity to quickly impose a brand of economic policy which benefits the elite at the cost of everyone else (by increasing unemployment, pushing the cost of essential goods through the roof, and otherwise increasing poverty), while people are still in shock and before they can react.
Of course, the Bush administration also used the threat of catastrophe to ram through bad legislation. For example, Congressman Sherman says that Congress was warned by the Bush administration that martial law might have to be imposed if the original $700 billion bailout wasn’t passed (see also this and this).
But its not just “conservatives†who play this game.
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