In the U.S., times are tougher for big business. Specifically, its public image has been better.

I mean, big business today is looking, well, not quite so large and in charge as it was during the stock market bubble of the 1990s. One major reason why is the tidal wave of corporate bankruptcies that began with the Enron Corp.

Are the accountants at fault for this and what has followed? Just ask Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. “An infectious greed seemed to grip much of our business community” last decade, overcoming “our historical guardians of financial information,” he recently told Congress.

Yet in 1996, Greenspan claimed concern about investors’ “irrational exuberance” regarding the sharp rise in stock prices. Recall the context for his concern? “The phrase came on the eighth page of a 10-page speech on the history of central banking in America, and then only in a question: "How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values ... ?" the Los Angeles Times of July 21 reported.

Now with a wink and a nod, Democrats and Republicans have fallen over themselves in bipartisan unity, creating legislation to reign in the rogues who sit in the corporate suites. These rogues are surely trembling in fear. Indebted U.S. households should be so fearful.

What’s the cascade of corporate bankruptcies that began with Enron mean for ordinary people who can’t sleep well at night thinking about their bills? They will likely be even more pressed to repay their debt. That’s because creditors will seek to shore up sagging profit margins battered by bankruptcy protected corporations by putting an even greater financial squeeze on small businesses and workers.

How? With the bankruptcy “reform” bill that Congress crafted for President Bush to sign in September. Indebted workers and small businesses beware!

Meanwhile, Congress has passed a corporate anti-fraud bill that the president has signed. Such legislation comes with much hubbub. Yet it won’t alter the basic economic and political inequality between those whose work enables the few to be idle and run the system.

That message doesn’t reach much of the public. Thus its field of vision stops at reform by the political class, owned and controlled by corporate America.

Meanwhile, elites are attempting to keep the illusion of equality intact. Well-crafted campaigns of sloganeering from Washington are the norm in a PR-addled society such as ours.

Against this backdrop, politicians are trying to control the emerging national conversation about corporate scandals. They want to get out in front of the parade to control popular discontent.

True, the political power of the exploited class is not much of a factor now. But it could be, and that causes the Fat Cats to squirm.

It is entirely possible that current events could lead to a new working-class politics. The economic base of U.S. society will surely change during a post-bubble era. Who will define justice in a society run by unelected corporations which influence political policies that govern how people live and work?

Seth Sandronsky is an editor with Because People Matter, Sacramento's progressive newspaper. Email: ssandron@hotmail.com

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