A shady new Web site is the best place to see our recessionary desperation.

Tuesday morning, a guy named Bailout Bill set up the Bailout Booth in Times Square and started giving away money. His visitors received anywhere between $50 to $1,000—no strings attached, no taxes to be filed. All you had to do was tell Bailout Bill why you needed the money.

Hundreds of people queued outside, waiting to get their personal bailout. And if you couldn’t get to the line in time, Bailout Bill had good news: Just go to his Web site, Bailoutbooth.com, and leave a message telling him why you need the money. Every day, he’ll pick a few people he thinks are deserving and funnel some cash their way.

But what else do we find at the site? That the Times Square bailout booth was just a publicity stunt? That Bailout Bill is really the shadowy figurehead of a new video-classified-ad site? That Bill wants us to take out sketchy loans, probably with the help of Preferred Payment Services, a company that has no Google trail whatsoever?

Yes, yes, and yes. This is America, after all. Even when John D. Rockefeller handed out dimes on the street, it was part of a PR effort to remake his monopolist image. It’s a quintessentially capitalistic drive: altruism with a purpose.

But just because Bailout Bill’s schtick is a craven, capitalistic cash grab doesn’t negate its intrigue. Here we have an event that seems to strike at the heart of our populist frustrations. The government is bailing out corporations and banks, yet it isn’t helping the little guy. If the banks can get $700 billion of (what’s perceived to be) free money, then why can’t American citizens? Bailout Bill is a monetary vigilante, filling the void that Washington created.

There are thousands of pleading messages on the site, begging for Bill to push money their way. It’s like reading a glut of Nigerian scam letters all on one page, except in this case nobody is offering Bill an investment—it’s strictly handout territory. Everybody has a sick relative, everybody has too much debt, and everybody is looking for a leg up. It makes for fascinating reading.