The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

by Naomi Klein

Bremer enacted a radical set of laws described by The Economist in glowing terms as the “wish-list that foreign investors and donor agencies dream of for developing markets.”10 One law lowered Iraq’s corporate tax rate from roughly 45 percent to a flat 15 percent (straight out of the Milton Friedman playbook). Another allowed foreign companies to own 100 percent of Iraqi assets—preventing a repeat of Russia, where the prizes went to the local oligarchs. Even better, investors could take 100 percent of the profits they made in Iraq out of the country; they would not be required to reinvest, and they would not be taxed. The decree also stipulated that investors could sign leases and contracts that would last for forty years and then be eligible for renewal, which meant that future elected governments would be saddled with deals signed by their occupiers.