False Populists

Matthew Yglesias questions the meaning of a sentence from Bush's State of the Union address from last night:

Here's a random note from last night. Bush, talking about a free trade pact with Colombia, said "If we fail to pass this agreement, we will embolden the purveyors of false populism in our hemisphere." The purveyors of false populism are, I guess, Hugo Chavez and other murky conspirators. But why is it false populism? Chavez is a real populist. Maybe you think he's a populist peddling fake solutions to Latin America's problems, but he's certainly not a secret pro-business neoliberal.

Or, perhaps Bush was referring to the fact that, despite Chavez's rhetoric, income inequality has increased during his tenure as Glorified National Leader and Great President. The economic disparities in Venezuela are nicely captured by the above photo, of Caracas. Similar stories may be told of Brazil (11th most unequal country in the world), Bolivia (6th most unequal), and just about every other country in Latin America, many of which are led by "real populists".

For the record, the U.S. was right at the global weighted average. List here.