Paul Krugman in The Conscience of a Liberal, “The Smith/Klein/Kalecki Theory of Austerity”:

What Smith didn’t note, somewhat surprisingly, is that his argument is very close to Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine, with its argument that elites systematically exploit disasters to push through neoliberal policies even if these policies are essentially irrelevant to the sources of disaster. I have to admit that I was predisposed to dislike Klein’s book when it came out, probably out of professional turf-defending and whatever – but her thesis really helps explain a lot about what’s going on in Europe in particular.

Honestly, it’s about time he connected the push towards austerity with Klein’s Shock Doctrine. It’s seemed fairly obvious to me the two were connected, and he’s hinted at similar issues before in arguing that the real reason for the push towards austerity is to dismantle the welfare state, not because it actually results in higher growth.