Speaking at the local BBB's annual Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics celebration, Stephen Cox said America today is suffering from a "trust deficit," that threatens to undermine social and economic well-being.

That trust is lower than it was in the wake of the Enron scandals and the dotcom bust, Mr. Cox said, citing studies.

"Scan the headlines of your morning newspaper and you quickly get a sense of the breadth and the depth of the trust violations that are taking place in our society and in our communities," Mr. Cox said.

"As business leaders, we absolutely care about our country's economic well-being and we cannot afford to accept the current lackluster levels of trust as something inevitable."

That sense of mistrust is exacerbated by people's growing isolation from each other, Mr. Cox said. He pointed to studies that show a dramatic drop in membership in community organizations, churches, unions, and other formal social groups. Increased reliance on technology can be an obstacle to healthy personal and business relationships, he said.

To combat the climate of mistrust, Mr. Cox said businesses would do well to place more confidence in their employees, increase employee training, build more long-standing relationships with their clients, and depend less on technology for communication with consumers.

Rising demand over the past five years for the BBB's services shows that consumers are increasingly looking for ways to gauge the credibility of businesses, Mr. Cox said.