> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit... "This man is a frothing conspira

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit... "This man is a frothing conspiracy theorist, a vainglorious peddler of nonsense, and yet his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, is a runaway bestseller." [1] "Although the accuracy of the content has been questioned, the book did well in terms of sales, placing on the best-seller lists of both the New York Times and Amazon." [2] Who needs evidence and reasoning when vacuous, fact-lite writing makes for great sales! > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine "Klein is not an academic and cannot be judged as one. There are many places in her book where she oversimplifies." [3] "Klein isn’t an economist but a journalist" [3] Stiglitz (cited by the author herself!) states that Shock Doctrine contains no understanding of actual economics. I'm sure the spy thriller narrative makes up for it though. "Friedman and the other shock therapists were also guilty of oversimplification, basing their belief in the perfection of market economies on models that assumed perfect information, perfect competition, perfect risk markets." [3] Ah when you've nowhere else to turn, let's do some what-about-ism. We cannot back up our arguments, but the other side cannot either! It's rich to accuse Friedman of oversimplifying when his own writing shows otherwise. He is against precisely what he is being accused of supporting. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story! "I do not believe it’s proper to put the situation in terms of industrialist versus government. On the contrary, one of the reasons why I am in favor of less government is because when you have more government industrialists take it over, the two together form a coalition against the ordinary worker and the ordinary consumer. I think business is a wonderful institution provided it has to face competition in the marketplace and it can’t get away with something except by producing a better product at a lower cost; and that’s why I don’t want government to step in and help the business community." [4][5] It helps to read multiple perspectives on an issue as complex as economics and development. It may not provide the easy answers we crave but it does act as an immunizer to shallow, doctrinaire thinking displayed in these "works". I'll forgive the downvotes if you'll read a book by Friedman (or Hayek or any economist with whom you disagree) for every one you've read that's critical of him. Then make up your own mind. We might still not be in agreement, but at least we can have a factual discussion. [1] Sebastian Mallaby https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/26/AR2006022601265.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/0... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit... [3] https://tsd.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/reviews/bleakonomics.html https://tsd.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/reviews/bleakonomi... [4] Milton Friedman: Free to Choose [5] https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/bp102.pdf https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/bp102.pdf