>
> But the massive groundswell of opposition invoked by populists of left and
> right simply does not exist.
>
> Doug
Okay, but it *should* do. This has been a massive expropriation, a redistribution of wealth from the working class to the rich. If people are confused, it is in part because the Bush administration's cranking up of panic and fear was highly effective, and people worried that not handing the money over on their terms right away would result in a major catastrophe (despite the fact that the proposed bail-out addressed none of the fundamentals of the crisis).
I'm not sure what 'populist' means in this context either. If it means pandering to people's idiotic ideas about the government waging class war on behalf of the wealthiest sections of the ruling class, then surely the label is justified. But the alternative seems to be to tell people that they have little power to do anything about it and they had better pay up in the hope that it does actually attenuate the crisis, or face unliveable consequences.