On August 8, 2023, massive wildfires rage through Lahaina in West Maui, killing at least 100 people in the deadliest wildfire event in the United States in more than a century. The fires destroy thousands of homes and businesses in the historic town, reducing what was once a vibrant wetland …
Josh GreenWest Maui Land CompanyGlenn TrembleKaleo ManuelCommission on Water Resource Management (CWRM)+2 moreinstitutional-capturesystematic-corruptionindigenous-rightsenvironmental-destructiondisaster-capitalism+2 more
Whitefish Energy, a Montana company with only two full-time employees from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s hometown, received a $300 million no-bid contract to restore Puerto Rico’s power grid after Hurricane Maria. The contract prohibited government auditing of costs while charging $462 …
Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, knocking out the entire electrical grid, leaving thousands without shelter, and causing thousands of deaths directly or indirectly—exposing catastrophic infrastructure failures resulting from decades of austerity and debt service …
McKinsey & CompanyFinancial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto RicoPuerto Rico Electric Power AuthorityNaomi Kleinhurricane-mariapuerto-ricodisaster-capitalismshock-doctrinemckinsey+5 more
Hurricane Katrina became the largest implementation of ‘disaster capitalism’ in U.S. history, with corporate interests using the crisis to advance privatization agendas previously blocked. Within 10 days of the levees breaking, .4 billion in no-bid contracts were awarded to four major …
Dick CheneyHalliburtonBechtelShaw GroupFluor+1 morehurricane-katrinadisaster-capitalismno-bid-contractsprivatizationdisplacement
Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered the liberalization of foreign trade, prices, and currency, launching the radical ‘shock therapy’ economic transformation designed by Deputy Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, a 35-year-old liberal economist advised by Harvard’s Jeffrey Sachs. The …
Boris YeltsinYegor GaidarJeffrey SachsHarvard UniversityInternational Monetary Fund+1 moreshock-therapyrussiashock-doctrineneoliberalismprivatization+5 more
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the most destructive river flood in American history, inundates 27,000 square miles across seven states and displaces approximately 700,000 people, disproportionately affecting African Americans in the Mississippi Delta. The disaster response, coordinated by …
Herbert HooverLeRoy PercyRed CrossNational Guardracismlabor-exploitationdisaster-capitalisminstitutional-racismfederal-policy