“Slapping the Invisible Hand, Building a Movement” (Pages 120-26)

Arguing that a “core battle of ideas must be fought” (125) if we are to make meaningful change, Klein looks back at a key crossroads moment. In 2009, just after Obama was elected President, the financial crisis shook people’s faith in neoliberal economics, and major banks and auto companies had to rely on huge government bailouts to keep from going under. Obama came to power with a promise to use climate change as an opportunity to create millions of jobs in a new energy economy. He was implementing a $800 billion stimulus program to deal with the fallout of the financial crisis.

Klein argues this could have been a huge turning point, where struggling manufacturing companies could have been put to a new purpose and adapted to build public transport and green energy infrastructure. The bailed-out banks could have been forced to lend to businesses to drive this green transformation. Old factories could have been run as cooperatives, as they were in Argentina after the financial crash of 2001. Climate change could have been a massive job creator and economic stimulus. However, “this required a government unafraid of bold long-term economic planning” (124) supported by a mass movement of environmentalists, workers, and students.