In the wake of tanking stock markets, crippled banks paying out billions in bonuses and investment advisers being accused of running Ponzi schemes, Americans’ trust in business has plunged to a 10-year low, a shocking new survey has found.

The distrust of business is greater than after Enron, the dot-com bust and 9/11, the survey found.

“Our survey confirms that it’s going to be harder to rebuild our economies because no institution has captured the trust that business has lost – trust is not a zero-sum game,” said Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman, whose Trust Barometer explores worldwide trust in the business worlds and other areas.

In the US, 51 percent of those questioned feel the government should step into troubled free markets and regulate them or nationalize them.

With banks and brokers ailing and many being forced to merge because of the missteps of CEOs, just 29 percent of those questioned globally say they trust information coming from a company’s chief executive – down from 36 percent last year.

“To regain trust and re-earn the mantle of authority, business needs to make substantive shifts in both policy and communications,” said Edelman, who has been conducting his Trust Barometer for 10 years.