OLD-LINE POPULISTS and left-leaning politicians are fond of setting “Main Street,” where the votes are, against “Wall Street,” where the money is. The latter, inhabited by fat cats, price gougers, insider traders, and assorted corporate felons, enriches itself by overcharging the doughty denizens of Main Street for all manner of goods and services, and inducing them to buy shares when they should be selling, and to sell shares when they would do better to be buyers.

That story works less well in America than it once did, witness John Kerry’s attempt to portray himself as pro-business now that the Democratic primaries, dominated by voters from the party’s left, are behind him. Styling himself “an entrepreneurial Democrat,” Kerry told the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, “I refuse to lead a party that loves jobs but hates the people that create them.”