Trust and Distrust

If auditors won’t keep corporations in line, let’s send in the Marines. Public opinion would back such a solution, to judge by a Gallup poll on people’s confidence in major institutions. The military won the highest ratings, with 79 percent expressing either a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in it. As for “big business,” just 20 percent of respondents voiced such esteem. But banks scored well (47 percent), surpassing the church/organized religion (45 percent), the medical system (38 percent), TV news (35 percent) and Congress (29 percent).