Naomi Klein Weighs In On US Bail-Out from Canada

First thing this morning, President Bush used his pulpit to urge passage of the Wall Street bail out. The House of Representatives is closed for the Jewish Holiday, Rosh Hashana, but lawmakers are still sorting out how to move past yesterday's rejected proposal. Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to President Bush that said she would continue to work with him to pass something by the end of the week. Meanwhile, lawmakers opposed are working to insert provisions that could bring them on board.

Commenting on the failure of the bailout was Naomi Klein, speaking lat night in Toronto to an audience of more than 800. Klein is the author of the recently published book, "The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism". The book documents how disasters and crises are created, perpetuated, and exploited by capitalist rulers to destroy opposition to free market policies. She applied that analysis to the financial crisis now gripping the United States.

Klein says that the bailout plan on the table was not a solution to the crisis; instead, it changed the location of the crisis from Wall Street to Washington, DC and then made it a public crisis.