Huey Long déjà vu?
In rhetoric reminiscent of Huey Long, the late populist governor and senator from Louisiana, the White House and Congress are playing populist themes against bankers and the upper classes.
The recent onslaught against New York’s bankers has shown class warfare gone awry. Bankers are being blamed and will pay for the bailout of the United Auto Workers’ in Detroit. Mayor Bloomberg is afraid that this move could bankrupt New York City, which he fears could suffer as did Detroit in this recession.
This form of populism has a subtext. Men and women are beginning to fear crowds. This past holiday, customers say they avoided sales in crowded, high-end stores. They didn’t want to be targets. Allan Mottus interviewed UPS workers in December who reported that E-commerce was up. Women also sent store purchases home. Mottus discusses this trend in the upcoming issue.