LET THE REFORMS BEGIN

摘要

At the core of every American reform movement there is the short, smoldering fuse of populist resentment―outrage over an arrogant elite of corporate malefactors and, often, alarm over an industrial octopus whose tentacles seem to menace the unprotected worker. In bygone days, symbols of unchecked power included land-grabbing rail barons, Midwestern meatpacking combines, the steel trust, Standard Oil, and rapacious Wall Street financiers. Compared with the errant tycoons of yesteryear, Bernard J. Ebbers, former CEO of WorldCom Inc., seems a wan pretender. But give Ebbers some credit: He may just be a fulcrum of U. S. economic history. The brash Mississippi exec is proving to be a catalyst for what some call the New Reform Era―the most ambitious drive to overhaul financial practices in generations.