Over the past decade, the Canadian writer Naomi Klein has been catapulted from success to success. The author of two best-selling books - No Logo (2000) and The Shock Doctrine (TSD) (2007) - she ranked number 11 on a list of "top global intellectuals", compiled by Prospect and Foreign Policy magazines. The New Yorker went even further, describing her as "the most visible and influential figure on the American Left".

In contrast to the ranting of many anti-trade, anti-business pundits, Klein adopts a more gentle and beguiling manner. But her views are no less absurd, coloured as they are by statist twaddle and pacifist invective.

She rose to fame during the glory days of the anti-globalisation era between 1999 and 2001. No Logo - with its distinctive black, white and red logo - was the anti-capitalists' Bible. It vindicated the protesters by vilifying multinational corporations, such as the IMF and World Bank.

In TSD, Klein envisions a global conspiracy involving "free-market ideologues" (such as the late Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman), multinational corporations, the World Bank, the IMF and national governments. Klein supposes that these conspirators use "crises" to implement their revision of the historical record.