1 Boring Old Man

The Almost-Done Deal, and the Era of Angry Populism

In fact, the bailout bill isn’t really taxpayer supported. It will befunded by additional federal debt, issued mostly to foreign governments – especially the Chinese and in the Middle East. And, strictly speaking,it’s not even a bailout. The Treasury will buy and hold mortgage-backed securities whose value is now unknown because there’s no market for them, until housing prices start rising again, by which time the securities should be worth something – perhaps even more than the Treasury pays for them. (Note that there continues to be great confusion about the extent to which the Treasury will hold a reverse auction, paying banks the minimum price at which they’re willing to sell the securities – perhaps 20 cents on the dollar – or whether the Treasury will buy the securities outright for their face values and take warrants or shares of stock in return.)

But whatever it’s called and however it’s financed, it’s still an outrage. America’s foreign policy is made no more flexible by going into deeper hock to the Chinese and the Middle East. And the deal still subjects American taxpayers to some risk, especially if the housing market doesn’t bounce back for many years. Worse, the bill can’t help but prop up the earnings many Wall Street executives whose malfeasance, greed, and stupidity got us into this mess in the first place. And it does nothing for average Americans except avoid economic calamity.

The larger economic outlook is not encouraging. All signs point to the economy worsening, bailout or no bailout. Unemployment will continue to rise. Median earnings will continue to drop, adjusted for inflation. More Americans will lose their health insurance.

The Era of Angry Populism has only just begun. Let’s hope Obama wins, and is able to mobilize the anger into fierce pressure on Congress to get his agenda enacted, as well as reform Wall Street and Washington.

I read this post by Richard Reich on TPM, and I had an immediate reaction. I don’t like being called "a Liberal." The term has been so degraded that even those of us who are the people they’re labeling don’t like it anymore. And I’m not "a Democrat." I just usually vote that way. And "a Progressive" sounds efite to me. What if I want to go backwards occasionally? Then I read "Angry Populist!" That’s me to a tee. I feel all warm inside at the thought of finally being something specific. I am, and will continue to be, an "Angry Populist."