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A "stickup"

Naomi Klein, sometimes criticised for her said-to-be Leftist views, is garnering more and more interest as she addresses the current economic crisis sweeping the globe.

insideBayArea.com reports:

"As public anxiety about the teetering economy deepens, author Naomi Klein is gaining listeners with her pronouncements on the failings of American-style capitalism.

"We've been living in a fairy tale" that deregulation and privatization serve the common good, the author of "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" said Thursday.

Klein's book paints a dark, troubling picture of a form of capitalism that lets people in power cash in on chaos, catastrophes, wars and financial crises and snatch up lucrative contracts.
Speaking at Stanford University's Kresge Auditorium on Thursday evening as part of the Aurora Forum, Klein minced no words. She insists that deregulating the financial system has created bubbles and busts, and she called the current $700 billion bailout, or rescue plan, a "stickup."

This financial crisis and the Iraq war are examples of how economic shocks and global disasters are used to boost the profits of the elite, she said.

"The president goes on TV and dangles a plan to Congress, saying if we don't get it we're going down, and banks are going to close in your neighborhood," she said. "That's deeply crazy if you look at it. Especially about a plan that almost all economists said couldn't fix the problem."

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