The Senate will vote tonight; the House is scheduled to vote tomorrow morning. Will the deal fly? Probably. Wall Street's gyrations since Monday have scared the hell out of a number of holdouts, notwithstanding all the negative emails and phone calls they continue to receive from constituents.

An important distinction here. While more Americans are coming around to "supporting" the bailout bill, the vast majority still hate the idea of bailing out Wall Street. They're for the bailout bill now only because they fear that a failure to pass it will have worse consequences -- drying up credit at a time when Main Street is struggling. But make no mistake: America is mad as hell. They resent what they perceive as extortion by the Masters of the Universe.

Angry populism has always been a potent force in American politics. And
now, with wages dropping, jobs insecure, fuel and food and
health-insurance costs soaring, and millions of homes in jeopardy -- and
what's perceived to be a massive tax-payer bailout of some of the richest
people in the land -- angry populism is about to explode. McCain has
already tried to cast himself as an angry populist, even though he still
wants to give the very rich a bigger tax cut than George W. gave them, and
cut taxes on big corporations (oil companies alone would reap $1.2 billion
a year under McCain's plan). Barack Obama, whose plans for middle-class
tax relief and afforable health care will genuinely help America's middle
and working classes, has been expressing more indignation lately on behalf
of them. But anger doesn't come as easily to Obama as it does to McCain --
even though McCain seems quite ready to aim his anger anywhere and
everywhere.

Democrats should be angry populists, given their traditional role of
protecting and championing the underdogs in American politics, and
especially considering the absurdly wide gap that's opened up between the
rich and everyone else. But in recent years Democrats have ceded the
mantle to Republicans, who now mimic the faux populism of Sean Hannity and
other right-wing talk show demagogues. (The recent maneuvering in the
House over the bailout bill is really over this. House Democrats are
getting the same angry mail that House Republicans are receiving, and
don't want to be seen as lending their support to this ugly bill without
Republicans signing on.)

In fact, the bailout bill isn't really taxpayer supported. It will be
funded 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 provision
ostensibly helping distressed homeowners is to be used at the discretion
of the Treasury Department, so it's mostly a sham.)

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.